The Nightwatch
by MrCreepah
Summary: Read the story of Five Nights at Freddy's through the eyes of Mike Schmidt. Basically a written playthrough of the first game with a few minor changes in gameplay and bits of Mike's life.
1. Prologue

_(A/N: I decided to post my first FNaF story here as well. If you've read "The Nights of '87", you'll notice that my writing has improved quite a lot since this story. The quality is a bit iffy, but once you get to chapter 6 or so, you'll notice improvements. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!)_

* * *

 **Prologue**

A few years ago, around 1993, I was on vacation, but I felt like I needed a bit of extra cash. I was browsing newspaper articles to find a job for a week and one of them caught my eye. It was to work as a night guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. I remember going there regularly as a kid. I remember the animatronic characters, Bonnie, a purple rabbit, Chica, a yellow chicken, Foxy, a red-orange pirate fox and Freddy Fazbear, a brown bear that was the main character. I remember everyone except for Foxy singing those same catchy songs every single day. I haven't been there since 1980, simply because it'll be awkward to go to a kid's pizzeria alone as an adult. I decided to apply for the job the next morning, which was a Sunday. I drove to the pizzeria and spoke to the manager. We had a speedy interview and I got the job, but it felt a bit too easy to get. He showed me around and told me to stay in the office at all times while I was working my shift.

After he showed me around, he asked if I wanted to start working that night and I figured it wouldn't do any harm, so I accepted. My shift was from 12 till 6 AM, no problem for me. On my way out I asked why Foxy was out of order, since Pirate Cove's curtains were closed with a sign that said just that. He nervously said that there were 'complications' and Foxy had to be kept isolated. After that, I said my goodbyes to the staff and went home. I smelled a faint smell of decay. I remembered rubbing my arm against Bonnie while the manager was showing me around. I smelled my right arm and it smelled strange, but for some reason I wasn't alarmed. As soon as I got home I washed my jacket.

I found an unread newspaper from a few weeks ago and saw that Freddy's was closing down at the end of the year. Shocked, I read further and found out that parents were complaining of dried blood and mucous around the eyes and mouths of the animatronics. That explained the smell of death, but I was wondering why this was there in the first place. I lost track of time after searching the internet for reasons and found none.

* * *

 _(A/N: That's it for the prologue, the rest of the story is coming very soon. I just need to read over it again and edit a few things to make it better, then I'll post it here.)_


	2. First Night on the Job

(A/N: Before you start reading this part, I feel like I have to say that I started this story before FNaF 2 came out, so some things may not be chronologically correct. Now that that's out if the way, enjoy!)

* * *

 **First Night on the Job**

Half an hour before the start of my shift, the manager called me and asked if I had a tablet or something similar. I won a prototype touch in a raffle, so I said yes and he told me to bring it to sync with the cameras, so I took my half charged tablet and drove to the pizzeria.

When I got there, it was only the manager standing there. He helped me connect my tablet to the camera feed. He finished at 11:55 PM and he told me once more not to move out of this office until my shift ended. He wished me good luck and hurriedly walked out. 12 AM arrives and the telephone rings. I jumped a bit because it was unexpected, but I searched for the telephone and picked it up. A guy nervously greeted me and said he wanted to record a message for me. He said he was the previous night guard at the place and it was his last week working there. He gave me an introductory greeting and other stuff, but one thing in particular caught my attention. He told me that if injury or death ever occur, a missing person's report will be filed within 90 days or as soon as the premises was thoroughly cleaned and bleached and the carpets have been replaced. This meant that they hide deaths that happen here, but I brushed it off as a way to keep customers.

After that he told me that it just sounds bad and I actually had nothing to worry about. He then explained that the animatronics were on some kind of free roaming mode at night to prevent their servos from locking up. He mentioned that having to get a repairman to fix them would be too expensive for the company's current state, so they scratched that idea. I got a bit worried when he said that if they see me after hours, they'll think I'm a metal endoskeleton without its costume on instead of what I am, a person. The bad part is, that's against the rules, so they'll forcefully stuff me into a Freddy Fazbear suit. The guy said that the suits are filled with cross beams, wires and animatronic devices, so it would painfully kill anyone if they were forcefully stuffed inside. I thought about how big those animatronics were, having metal innards means a lot of strength, so I wouldn't stand a chance. He finished off by saying I have nothing to worry about, again, (yeah, right) and I should only close the doors if absolutely necessary, since power was limited due to budget cuts. The recording ended.

I thought there weren't doors for this office, but I looked around and saw two buttons on either side of the office labelled 'door' and 'light'. I tested them and I was happy to see that they worked. They were those power locked doors with a magnetic lock that only opens if power is applied, closing the door, probably to avoid having anybody trapped in the office in the case of a power outage. I saw that there was a power indicator on a monitor in the office, showing that I had 83% power left. It was 1 AM and I realised that I forgot to check the cameras, so I did. Bonnie, Chica and Freddy were still on stage, causing my fear to subside a bit. I knew they were the only real problems that I had at this point, since I thought nobody would want to rob this place. Even if they did, the free roaming animatronics would take care of them. I put the tab down and quickly checked my lights, in case something or someone was hiding there, but I found nothing. 2 AM. I checked the cameras again, all the main animatronics were still on stage and Pirate Cove was the same, closed curtains. Nothing was going on in the other parts of the pizzeria so I checked the show stage again, but this time the animatronics were staring at the camera. I just kept the tab showing the show stage camera feed and stared at them. Then, the screen went black.

I started trembling, since this was with all the cameras and I had absolutely no idea what was going on around the pizzeria, so I quickly checked my door lights. Again I found nothing. I checked the cameras from time to time, hoping they would come back online soon and finally at 3 AM, they did. Chica and Freddy weren't staring at the camera anymore, but Bonnie was off stage. I searched frantically until I found him standing in the Supply Closet like a statue. I calmed down a bit since I knew where all the animatronics were, but I was still on edge, since Bonnie was quite close to the office. I had 50% power left and 3 hours to go, I thought I would make it if I was cautious with my power. I tried not to look at the cameras for too long since my tablet was charging through the building's power and it took power when the screen was on.

I checked Pirate Cove and I saw Foxy peeking out of the curtains. I could only see his face, his jaw was hanging down. Now would be a good time to mention that the guy on the phone said something about a bite of '87. He said it was amazing that the human body could live without the frontal lobe, so someone got a bite to the head from one of the animatronics. That explains the 'complications' that the manager was talking about when he showed me around, since Foxy looked like the most likely candidate. Those sharp teeth and the hanging jaw pointed fingers towards my favourite animatronic. I realised that I drifted off in thought while staring at Foxy through the camera feed. It was 4:30 AM.

I checked the other cameras and now Chica was also off the stage. She was in the East Hall, very close to the office. I couldn't find Bonnie anywhere, then I quickly realised where he could've been, so I checked the left door light and he was right there, staring at me. My arm shot at the door button and closed it. I felt my heart pounding against my chest, so I tried to calm myself down. I checked the right door light, finding nothing. At the left door light, I saw Bonnie's silhouette was still there. It was 5 AM then and I had 15% power left. I started getting angry at myself for drifting off in thought.

Checking my lights again, Bonnie finally left, good for my power. Chica wasn't there, she was in the restrooms. With my luck, the cameras went offline again. Thankfully, this time it was only for a few seconds, but Chica was gone. I jumped slightly at the sound of pots crashing and thought that no burglar would be that clumsy, so I assumed that Chica was in the kitchen. I saw Bonnie in the dining area, Freddy was still on stage, but Foxy was well out of the curtains at Pirate Cove now. He looked like he was just waiting for me look away. At least, that's what I could tell from his face in that shoddy lighting.

I made another round of checking cameras and noticed there were some newspaper clippings in the East Hall Corner. I took a screenshot so I could read them when I got home. I had just ten more minutes of my shift left, but I only had 7% power left. I thought it would be enough if I just did quick rounds of checking the lights and the cameras, so that's what I did. The animatronics stayed where they were, but Foxy was giving me a reason to feel scared. The cameras suddenly turned off. I thought I was out of power but I saw that it was 6 AM. I felt such a huge sense of relief as I packed up my things to leave. I got my tablet and hurried to my car, finding Bonnie walking to the stage. He turned around and I stood still.

His robotic voice just said "Hey buddy, enjoy your pizza!"

That didn't bother me too much, so I scurried along to my car and went straight home. All the tension from working there kept me from feeling any of my bodily functions until I finally relaxed in my apartment. I was suddenly famished and extremely drowsy. I felt too weak to make anything good to eat, so I just settled for some cereal and went to sleep.


	3. Reasons

**Reasons**

I was woken up 6 hours later by a phone call from the manager. "So how was it?" he asked nervously. "It was nice experiencing a new type of job," I lied. "Well that's great! So you'll be back tonight?" "Yes, I will," then he dropped the phone. The vivid image of my shift last night sprung into my mind. What was I thinking? Why did I lie and say it was nice experiencing a job where everything there wanted to kill me? I felt as if something was wrong with me. I blamed it on the fact that I just woke up, but I didn't want to go back there.

I remembered the screenshot of the newspaper clippings that I took and decided to read them. They had a report on five children that were lured away from the pizzeria, never to be seen again. They are suspected to be dead, but no bodies were ever found. A suspect had been arrested when police found that he had a fake animatronic suit hidden away. Speculation suggested that the children were lured to the back room where they were kept until they were murdered and their bodies disposed of. Could the children have been stuffed into the animatronics' costumes?

It was highly likely, considering the strange smell and the dried blood and mucous coming out of their eyes and mouths. The thing that didn't make sense was that there are only 4 animatronics. Was there a fifth one that I didn't know about? Perhaps two of the children were stuffed into one animatronic.

At that moment my train of thought suddenly crashed. My mind just went blank, almost like something supernatural was messing with my mind. I couldn't even see straight for a few seconds, but this was normal for me, happening when I just wake up and think about these complicated stories. I returned to the present after I couldn't start that train again and I was wondering why I was going back. I just didn't know, I just felt compelled to go back there and work for the full week. Nothing made sense. I went back to sleep, hoping to find answers when I woke up. I drifted off and woke up again in the office.

How was I in the office? Things were very strange. It was 4 AM, I had 60 % power. That seemed so wrong, at that rate of power consumption without even using the doors or the camera feed, it had to be less, but I wasn't complaining. I checked the cameras, Chica and Freddy were on stage, Pirate Cove's curtains were closed. Bonnie was gone, I couldn't find him on the cameras. I put my tablet down and he was right in front of me.

I sat still, hoping he wouldn't do anything, but he wasn't fooled. He grabbed me by my leg and pulled me all the way backstage. I never felt so helpless in my life, he was too strong. I couldn't break free. He picked me up and started shoving me into the suit, legs first. My eyes shot open and I sat up like a lightning bolt after I felt my leg getting crushed. I started panicking when I couldn't feel my leg, but it was fine. It just lost feeling from hanging off the edge of my bed.

I checked the time, it was 4 PM. I slept for 10 hours in total, 2 hours more than usual. It was probably the fatigue from my shift and that phone call that interrupted my sleep. I tried to relax and keep that damned pizzeria out of my head until I had to go work my shift.


	4. You Shall Not Eat

**You Shall Not Eat**

11:55 PM. I got out of my car and walked to the office for the second night. Why did I come back? It felt like something was drawing me to this place. I just wanted to run out, but I felt like I had to do this. Nobody was here this time, so I swiftly made my way to the office and connected my tablet to the camera feed. I jumped when the office telephone suddenly rang, but it only took me 3 seconds to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Oh hi, just making sure you're at the office, don't want to be paying you for nothing," said the manager.

"No, I'm here. Hey, before you go, the power is recharged every night, right?"

"Yes, of course. Be smart with your power and it won't go dark."

"Alright, thanks"

"Take care," and with that he dropped the phone. He sounded anxious, as always. Here we go again.

12:00 PM. The phone rang again, this time I expected it. I picked it up and it was the phone guy from the first night. He said I did a good job yesterday. It felt false since it was a recording, but the circumstances made me grateful for it. He told me that Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses, which ruined my calm state. He told me that I should check the cameras while he spoke, just to make sure that everyone was in their proper places, so I did. Chica was off stage and in the dining area this early in my shift, not a good sign. He carried on, saying that my door lights are extremely important, as there are blind spots in my camera views which just happen to be right outside my doors, great. The last thing he mentioned was Foxy, telling me to check on Pirate Cove from time to time, since Foxy tends to become active if the cameras remain off him for long periods of time. The call ended with a 'talk to you tomorrow'. If I even make it.

I checked my door lights and made a quick camera check. Pirate Cove's curtains were closed and Chica was still in the dining area. Bonnie moved off stage and into the supply closet. It was still 12 AM. I guess the stress of being here alone along with all the stuff I have to keep track of made it feel like an eternity. Bonnie was uncomfortably close to the office, especially considering it's so early in my shift. A quick camera sweep revealed that Bonnie moved to the dining area, Chica there with him. Freddy was still on stage, but Foxy was peeking out of his curtains. The clock finally turned to 1 AM. I was surprisingly calm, for a few seconds, until I nearly sprang out of my chair when I heard pots loudly clattering and clashing in the kitchen. I checked the lights as fast I could, nobody was there. I checked the cameras and saw Bonnie right by the West Hall Corner, staring into the lens.

I didn't check the other cameras because I knew Bonnie was going get in if I did. I waited and waited, checking only my lights, but he didn't pop up at my door. I checked the cameras, he wasn't at the corner, but he wasn't at my door either. He ended up being backstage, but something felt strange. Upon closer inspection I saw a metal endoskeleton there, but Bonnie wasn't doing anything to it. I put my tablet down but I wasn't really paying attention, I was just lost in thought, why wasn't he stuffing it in the Freddy suit? I got snapped back to reality when I heard footsteps, like someone was walking away from the office or something. Why does my mind constantly wander off? I'm sure it's going to get me killed one of these days. Especially with this job.

I checked my lights and the cameras, Pirate Cove's curtains were wide open and Foxy was nowhere to be found. I panicked and checked the other rooms, I found him sprinting down the West Hall. I nearly threw my tablet down and my arm shot to the door button like a lightning bolt, but I missed twice before I finally pressed it. Foxy was banging on the door, trying to get in. I breathed a sigh of relief when he stopped. After 5 minutes of trying to keep my heart in my chest, I checked my lights and Chica was at my right door, her beak open. I shut the door, but I could still see that demonic face through the window whenever I checked the light. "Let's Eat," oh hell no.

3 AM. I still had three hours of this madness to go through. Luckily I had 50% power left, but Chica just refused to move away from the door, which was draining my power. I checked the cameras and saw a dark animatronic figure in the west hall. I assumed it was Bonnie because I knew where everyone else was. I wished I had some warm tea or something, since I was shaking like there was an earthquake. To think I actually loved Foxy, now he just wants to stuff me into a suit. Unfortunately for me, that damned animatronic chicken was still at my door, my power slowly draining away. 35%, 34%, 33%.

4 AM. Things were looking bad. Chica was still there, Foxy was ready to sprint again and Bonnie was by the West Hall Corner. I had 25% power left when Chica decided to leave, but then Bonnie popped up at my left door. I started panicking because my power wasn't going to last very long. Suddenly, I heard banging on my door, must be Foxy again, only this time, my power jumped from 23% to 17% when it stopped. Nobody was at my doors, Foxy was back behind the curtains at Pirate Cove, Bonnie and Chica were in the dining area and Freddy was on stage. 15% power left. I decided that quick blind spot checks and camera sweeps were the only way I was getting out of there alive.

5 AM, 11% power. Everyone was far from the office. I could make it if things stayed that way, but for an hour? Quite the longshot. I tried saving as much power as possible, making quick door light checks and very brief camera sweeps every 5 minutes. Foxy was peeking out, Chica was at the dining area and Bonnie was backstage. I had twenty minutes to go, with 4% power left. I got so lost in concentration, I wasn't even shaky anymore, but I was very tense. 3% power. I just stuck to checking the lights, camera sweeps were too power consuming at that point. I hoped and prayed that Foxy didn't sprint again. 2 % power, 12 minutes to go. I checked the cameras for the last time that night, Bonnie was in the dining area, Chica in the restrooms, Foxy peeking out of his curtains, Freddy on stage. I decided to leave everything for those last 12 minutes. I spent it chewing through my nails, trying to calm myself down, remember all the good memories I had, until I nearly fell out of my chair at that sound.

That sound of the 6 AM bell ringing, it scared me so badly, but words cannot describe how relieved I was. I grabbed my tablet and sprinted to my car, wanting to get out of this place as soon as possible. On the way home, I smelled a really bad smell. It was me. I was so sweaty and I stank like a dog's mouth, but I didn't care. I was alive and that was all that mattered.


	5. Stay

**Stay**

The road to my apartment was empty, at least one advantage of working the night shift. One small advantage in a pool of disadvantages, but an advantage nonetheless. My body odour was ruining it though, so that's that advantage cancelled out. When I got to my apartment, the first thing I did was take a shower. Never have I ever had a more refreshing shower in my life. When I got out, I checked my phone and saw three missed calls from the manager, so I called him.

"Hello?"

"Mike here, I got three missed calls?"

"Oh! Hehe, you're okay! I thought that...never mind,"

"What was that pause all about?"

"N-nothing, I just thought that maybe you quit your job and you were ignoring me or something ridiculous like that,"

"No, I was just in the shower,"

"That's good, uh, listen. I really need you here for the rest of the week, there have been reports of criminals on the loose and I don't want anything to happen to our place, is that alright?"

"Don't worry, I'll be there,"

"Thank you, have a great day,"

With that he dropped the phone. Again, he sounded very nervous. My best bet was that he thought I got stuffed. There I was again, willingly saying I'll be there for the night. He should really stop making calls right after my shift because I make bad decisions when I'm tired. I started watching a documentary about Freddy's, but I only got a minute in my head before I fell asleep. I woke up at 1 PM because of an empty stomach, so I made some lunch. I wish I stayed awake for the documentary since I felt the need for more knowledge of the place.

As I was gobbling through my grilled cheese sandwich, I thought about when Bonnie was backstage. Why was he doing nothing to the endoskeleton? It didn't make sense. Maybe it was a regular sight? I doubted it since it's against the rules either way, no matter where you were. No robots made for a kid's pizza place could differentiate between different rooms, it'd be too expensive. I'm not one to believe in ghost stories, but I had a feeling that the five murdered children were involved in some way.

I had one problem though, five children, four animatronics. If there were spirits involved, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't haunt the same object as someone else. Was there a fifth animatronic? Maybe the fifth child was haunting the spare Freddy suit, or even the endoskeleton at the back, watching the victim get stuffed the same way that the murderer did it. The darkness of that thought gave me chills, which made me think about the shift I said I would be working.

Thinking back to the call, it wasn't just fatigue making the decision to go back to work. Something was drawing me to it. At that moment, I heard a whisper,

 _ **Stay**_

I checked around me, nobody was there. Was I hallucinating? I doubt it, but if I was hallucinating, it would've come from a part of my brain that wanted to know more, so I saw it as a sign to go back. I was risking my life to find out more about a pizzeria's ghost story. I felt like a part of my life would be incomplete if I didn't finish this, and I always finish what I started. 20 years old with so much to live for. For some reason I was actually a little bit excited to go back to a place where I could die so easily. I've always been a thrill seeker, but this is just madness. Three more days of this and five of the most memorable nights to look back to in the future, a really good story.

That is, if I make it out alive.


	6. It's ME

**It's ME**

11:55 PM. It was a cool night, but I knew that I'd need that fan in the office. With 'major criminals' on the loose, you'd think a pizzeria would make use of the locks on the doors, but not Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. What criminal would want to rob a place like this, with creepy animatronics and a low amount of cash in the bank? As far as I'm concerned, that manager is paranoid. I started walking through to the office, passing the show stage. Bonnie, Chica and Freddy were staring at me. I moved around and watched them. Ever so slightly, they turned to follow my movements. These things were alive. They knew I was a human. I thought of why they weren't attacking me yet, then I realised they were probably running on a timer. They start roaming at midnight and they head back to the stage in a 'friendly' mode at 6 AM. This made me walk briskly to the office.

12 AM. The phone rang again, it was the Phone Guy. He said most people don't make it this far, moving on to 'other things' by now. I chuckled when he said he wasn't implying that they died. I checked the cameras. Foxy was already peeking out, but everyone else was on still stage. He carried on, saying that he won't take up too much time, since things are getting 'real' tonight. Is Freddy becoming active now? I was just listening at this point, not focusing on anything else. He said that if I get caught, I should play dead. If I do that, they might think of me as an empty costume. I got annoyed when he said they might try to stuff that endoskeleton inside of me, that's time I could've used to check what the animatronics were up to. The recording ended and I checked the cameras.

Only Freddy was on stage. Not only that, he was looking at the camera as well, it was worrying me. Foxy was still only peeking out, but Bonnie and Chica were both at the corners by the office. It wasn't even 1 AM and both of those things were worryingly close to the office. At that moment, the cameras jammed. I switched to the Pirate Cove feed before I put my tablet down and as expected, those two were at the blind spots. Bonnie left almost immediately, but Chica was still there. I wish I could close off that window, so that stupid chicken couldn't see me. Cameras were still jammed, damn. The rest of the hour passed quite slowly.

1 AM. Chica didn't move, but the cameras were back online. Bonnie was in the dining area and Freddy was on stage. Foxy was still only peeking out. I was quite lucky that night. I thought he'd be ready to sprint by then. Only problem was, I had 80% power and I had 5 hours to go. Using 20% power in the first hour is bad since the animatronics were only going to become more aggressive. Chica finally left, retreating to the kitchen. I was starting to hate chickens. Most of them run away when you're near them, but the most dangerous one lingers near for long periods of time. A pot crashed to the ground, making me have a mini heart attack and nearly drop my tablet. I calmed down fairly quickly, which means that I've gotten better.

A few minutes from 2 AM, I checked the cameras again. Freddy was still on stage, just not staring at the camera anymore. If turning to face a camera is all it takes to prevent servos from locking up, why don't they just have a box around the stage so they can move around there? This was making me even more suspicious of the manager's reasons. Foxy was ready to sprint and Bonnie was pretending to be a statue in the supply closet while Chica was in the East Hall. I put my tablet down to try and relax, but a few seconds later I started hearing a robotic voice and pictured Freddy with human eyes. I heard a whisper:

 ** _It's ME_**

I started panicking and checking my lights, finding nothing. I checked the cameras and saw Foxy sprinting down the hall. The door button seemed so far away and I missed 3 times before I saw him inside the office trying to kill me with his hook. My heart almost popped out of my chest until he faded into thin air. It was so bad that I nearly started crying. I tried to relax for a few minutes before I checked my lights and the cameras again. Bonnie and Chica were in the dining area, Foxy was ready to sprint. Freddy didn't move since the last time I checked on him. This job was getting bad, I was even hallucinating. I checked the clock, 3 AM with 50% power left.

The one good thing about this was that I had plenty of power. I could even keep one door closed for the rest of the night without running out of power. I never thought I'd start having hallucinations. They only make this stupid job worse. It's so bad that it's messing with my mind. The animatronics were far, but Foxy wasn't giving me a chance to relax. I checked the cameras, Pirate Cove's curtains were wide open, but the sign that originally said 'Sorry, Out of order' now said 'IT'S ME'. I blinked and it went back to normal. Then I realised Foxy was on his way, so I closed the door and waited. Seconds later, I heard him banging on the door. When he was done, I opened it again before checking the other cameras. Bonnie was in the supply closet and Freddy was staring at the camera again. I wondered when Freddy would become properly active.

I didn't see Chica anywhere, but I heard scrambling of pots. What does that chicken even do in there? Surely a robot doesn't get hungry. It was 3:30 AM. Bonnie and Chica decided to team up on me and camp at my doors. They refused to leave. I just left my doors closed and didn't check the cameras. Even with this much power, I still had to conserve it. I just sat there, checking the lights, waiting for them to leave. I was slightly surprised that Bonnie stayed for that long. It made it seem even more like a team attack. After checking the left light without seeing Bonnie's silhouette, I checked the cameras for Foxy and saw him running down the hall again. 43% power straight down to 37% when he finished banging on the door, but I could finally open it again. Unsurprisingly, Chica refused to leave.

4 AM, Foxy was peeking out again. He seems like he's not so shy anymore. Bonnie was backstage, but he didn't have his eyes. I saw his face up close to the camera lens, with eyeless eye sockets. These things know about all the cameras, not just the stage and the corner cameras. I didn't even bother checking on Freddy anymore, the others were a much bigger threat and needed more attention. I checked my lights and Chica was still there. I couldn't get that image of Bonnie out of my head. It was so unnerving. Why would he take his eyeballs out and stare into the camera like that? It just raised more questions.

Chica decided to leave when I had 28% power left. It was 20 minutes short of 5 AM. I thought I had it in the bag at this point. Bonnie was still backstage, but further from the camera and with his eyes in place. Foxy was still only peeking out. Chica was by the restrooms and Freddy was still on stage, staring into the distance. I was pretty calm at this point, 5 AM arrived smoothly and I had 24% power left. Bonnie and Chica were in the dining area and I checked on Foxy just enough to keep him from getting ready to sprint. This made me wonder, how does Foxy know how much I check on him? I looked around the room and saw a cupcake with eyes. How could I never have seen this before? It made me wonder how this thing even came to be, why would a person make a cupcake with eyes? Is this how the animatronics know my position? I still had so much to learn about this place.

These thoughts made me zone out. Reality caught me eventually, at 5:20 AM. I checked my lights and Chica returned. I reached to close the door, but it didn't work. The light only turned off and I couldn't use that either. I tested the left door and it worked, so that could only mean that the door was jammed. I was scared to check the cameras since Chica could sneak up on me if I did that. I thought that if I watched the doorway and stayed still, she'd stay where she was. I closed my left door in case Foxy decided to sprint again and waited. I had 20% power and I was trying my best to keep from trembling.

My power was slowly draining away as I heard Foxy banging on the door. This was probably causing strain on the electromagnets because it drained my power extremely fast. It went from 16% down to 5% by the time he stopped. Having only 5% power and having to keep a door closed wasn't good for me. I was going to run out of power. This made me tremble. I tried closing the right door, it was still jammed. 4% power, down to 3%, then 2%. I had 15 minutes left with barely any power. I wasn't going to make it. This was my last night on the job and on this planet. I wonder how many souls are trapped in that Freddy suit. I wouldn't want to share it with ten people, since that would make my afterlife annoying. I heard a low humming sound and the lights turned off. I ran out of power.

I just sat there, waiting for something to get me. I waited for around 5 minutes until I saw eyes and a brown mouth with teeth by the left door. It was Freddy, and he was playing his jingle. It brought back so many memories that I had as a child. Too bad I was seconds away from death. His jingle played on, but it cut off halfway. I closed my eyes and waited. I heard the 6 AM bell and sprang out of my chair, only to find Freddy right there. He said "I hope you're enjoying that pizza! I want a slice right now," before turning and walking out of the office. So they do know what time it is. I was trembling and I stumbled twice trying walking out of this place. The sense of relief was huge. I still needed to calm down, so I just sat in my car for a while before I drove to my apartment.


	7. Nightmares and Whispers

_(A/N: This is where my writing starts to improve. You guys probably won't notice much of a difference, since I've been editing the previous chapters to fix mistakes and improve the grammar and such, but if you look closely you'll be able to see something. This is also where this story starts to get long, the next chapter, night 4, is twice as long as night 3, so if you like lengthy chapters you're in for a bit of a treat :D)_

* * *

 **Nightmares and Whispers**

I got to my apartment, but I for a little while I was just sitting in my car. I just couldn't believe that I was having hallucinations. That image of Bonnie without his eyes just stuck in my mind, I couldn't get it out. All of this raised so many questions in my mind. Why did Bonnie take his eyes out? Why was I hallucinating? Who was whispering to me? Unfortunately I had no answers for the many questions in my head.

After about ten minutes trying to find answers, I went to go take a shower. I ended up taking twice as long as I normally do, since I was still trying to figure things out. I was thinking so hard that I had trouble making a sandwich. To make things worse, I could hardly even stomach it. When I realised that I thought about this for over half an hour, I gave up and went to sleep.

I dreamt that I was a child, running around in the pizzeria with the other kids. It was a time when the stage animatronics were walking around, telling people to enjoy their pizza. Everyone fell silent when Freddy played his jingle. It felt just like old times. Everything about it felt real, until Freddy ripped his head off. For some reason the other kids were cheering while Bonnie started scraping his eyes out. Things got way out of hand when Chica's jaw was chattering. A kid got too close and had his arm bitten off. The animatronics' faces started decaying right before my eyes, but the kids were still cheering. It smelled like death.

I started hearing those robotic voices from the previous night and nearly started crying. I ran off to the exit, but the doors faded away, replaced by the walls. I ran to the table where my parents were sitting, but I found them lying on the ground next to Foxy, who had blood dripping from his mouth. He started chasing me. I was faster than him, but the other animatronics were blocking my path. He lifted me by my shirt using his hook and threw me against the wall where the doors once were. I stood up and saw the main animatronics with their backs facing me. Suddenly, they all turned to face me, Freddy without his face, Bonnie without his eyes, Chica with a blood stained mouth. They all whispered,

 _ **It's ME**_

I woke up on the floor, trembling. I must have fallen off my bed. It was 10 AM, which meant that I got less than 4 hours of sleep. I remembered what happened in the dream and immediately ran to call my parents. I was so happy when my mom answered the phone. I spoke to her with a very shaky voice, so she obviously asked what was wrong. I just told her that I had a nightmare where both she and my dad died and wanted to make sure they were okay, saying nothing about the animatronics. Heck, she didn't even know that I was working. I thought it was best that it was just me that knew about this. We spoke about some other things before ending the call.

I thought about the nightmare and the hallucinations. This job was driving me insane. Was it even the job? The last time I had a scarring nightmare was when I was a child. I don't recall having nightmares throughout my teenage years, since it takes a lot to scare me. I thought back to the nightmare I had after my first shift. It wasn't unnatural, since it was a result of a horrifying experience. Just like the whispers and the hallucinations, this nightmare had no explanation. Where were they coming from? I tried thinking about it, but my mind felt blocked. Then I heard another whisper,

 _ **Please**_

It sounded like the whisperer was pleading with me. Please? Please what? I just heard sobbing. It was echoing, so I knew it wasn't anybody near me. It had to have been a spiritual entity that was whispering to me. The whispers were real. Who was whispering to me? Was it one of the children's spirits? It had to be. Who else would it be?

I thought of the manager. He should've given me a phone call, but there wasn't a word from him, not even a text message. Did he really trust that I would be there for the rest of the week? I doubted it. I shoved him out of my mind because of my grumbling stomach. I made a nice breakfast for myself at 3 PM. After a very enjoyable meal, I felt a growing headache, probably from all the thinking and the lack of sleep. I felt exhausted, so I decided to get back to sleep.

After a solid 20 minutes of tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I dreamt that I was a child in the pizzeria again. I was all alone, only Freddy keeping me company. He seemed odd, slightly smaller and with almost no robotic joints, but more human. He led me through the halls, I saw crying faces drawn on the walls. We walked past Pirate Cove, the sign said 'Please save us'. We got backstage and I noticed lots of teeth on the floor. I stepped on something squishy. Freddy told me to turn around, so I did. The last thing I felt before I woke up was a sharp pain in my back, with the violet tip of a knife sticking out of my chest.

With wide eyes, I felt my chest. It was fine. I felt rejuvenated and full of energy. Despite the darkness of my dream, it was a really good sleep session. I thought of the sign, 'Please save us'. Was that what the whisperer wanted, for me to save the kids? I couldn't have done that, since I had no idea this even happened until recently. This must be the way that the child is using to explain what's happening, through my dreams. I only wish I could talk to the poor kid. He or she could probably read my thoughts, so I guess my communication is done by thinking. I checked the time, 20 minutes until midnight. I slept for over 8 hours, and I had to get ready for my shift. While I was driving, I was thinking about why I slept for so long. I thanked the kid for letting me get enough sleep. I needed it.


	8. Goodbye

**Goodbye**

I was nearing the pizzeria when I realised that I forgot my tablet at my apartment. It was 11:51 PM, so I had to drive quickly to get there and back on time, otherwise the animatronics would be roaming. I ran up to my apartment and found it on the charger. I sprinted back down the stairs, tablet in hand, and jumped into my car. I had 5 minutes to get back to the pizzeria on time, so I floored it for the whole way. It's not like a lot of people are on the road at this time anyway. I got there at 11:58 PM and found a note by the door, saying that the manager bothered to make use of the locks on the doors and hid the key in a potted plant on the far side of the pizzeria. Perfect.

To make things worse, there were five potted plants in said location, but thankfully I found it in the second one that I checked. I sprinted back to the door and checked for the right key. It took 20 seconds for me to find it and open the door. I checked my watch and saw that I had less than 15 seconds to get to the office. I didn't bother locking the door after I closed it, I simply ran through the shortest route to get to the office. Unfortunately, that was past the show stage. My life depended on the accuracy of my watch at that moment. I saw the animatronics watching me. Lucky for me, they didn't decide to chase me. I made it to the office, out of breath with just a tiny bit of sweat as the phone rang.

I didn't even have time to catch the breath I needed to concentrate on the job at hand. I checked the cameras as the phone guy started talking. He said that he knew I could do it. I almost chuckled until I realised he sounded more nervous than usual. Bonnie, Chica and Freddy were staring into the camera on the show stage while Foxy was behind the curtains. I put my tablet down and tried to catch my breath while I was listening to the recording. He told me that he might not be able to send a message for the next day. I heard banging on his door, must have been Foxy except he was more persistent than I knew him to be, as it carried on and on. He continued, saying it was a bad night for him and that he was glad he recorded his messages for me when he did.

I checked the lights and found nothing. He was extremely nervous. I don't blame him since he must have had a low chance of survival. Foxy carried on banging on his door. The phone guy asked me to do him a favour, to check inside the suits in the back room. Foxy hit the door again, couldn't be good for the power. I checked the cameras as he said he'd try to hold out until someone checked, saying it might not be so bad. He stuttered, telling me he always wanted to know what was in all the empty heads. I heard Freddy's jingle, followed by a moan. The phone guy's final words were "Oh no" and I heard a low pitched screech followed by static. The call ended there.

The phone guy was caught by the animatronics. I realised that I was using power since I had my tablet set on the camera feed, so I quickly checked all the cameras and my door lights and sat still. Foxy was peeking out of the curtains, everyone else was on stage. I caught my breath, but I felt a bit of sadness. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been alive. I would've died on the first night, probably from running out of power keeping the doors closed for the whole night. Now he's dead. Well, he's been dead for a while, but I didn't know that until now. It felt like he just died today.

I checked my lights, nothing. I checked the cameras, Foxy was in the same position, Bonnie was in the west hall and Chica was in the restrooms. Great, no more time to think. 12 AM and I'm slightly shaken, but otherwise I was ready for the night. I swore to myself that I'd find a way to avenge those who have died here, as well as prevent anyone else from dying. I was in for a long night.

Not even an hour into the night and I was already shaky. I had thoughts of just why the animatronics got more active as the week progressed. Maybe they worked on a timer, Monday they're relaxed, Friday they don't give you an inch. Just a thought, but that could be it. I checked the cameras again and saw that Bonnie moved to the dining area, Chica didn't move, Foxy was still peeking out and Freddy was on stage as usual. 1 AM and I had 82% power. Things were going a lot better than I expected. This allowed me to be calm and do what I needed to do, when I needed to do it. I left everything for about 10 minutes before checking again, to save power. Bonnie was in the supply closet, Chica stayed in the restrooms, Foxy was still peeking out, Freddy was still on stage. I heard the clattering of pots a few seconds later, seems like Chica was hungry.

I felt a sense of control, like I knew how to handle the situations that could happen. It made me a bit cocky, which is never good, especially in a situation like this. I started checking the cameras with longer intervals than normal, it saved power, but Foxy didn't approve. He was ready to sprint to my office now. Bonnie kept moving between the dining area, west hall and the supply closet while Chica made it to the east hall, but decided to go back into the kitchen. Freddy just stared into the camera. I checked the west hall and saw "IT'S ME" written on the wall. I blinked a few times and it returned to normal, but it made me a bit uneasy. I checked the west hall corner and saw the normal Freddy poster change into one where Freddy was ripping his head off. This reminded me of my nightmare and I started shaking again. The robotic voices returned and I saw Freddy without human eyes flashing in my head. I hesitated to check the backstage camera. Eventually I did, but I wished that I didn't. Bonnie was staring at the camera without his eyes again.

My shaking got so bad I dropped my tablet. Fear consumed my mind and tears clouded my vision. I actually ended up blanking out for a few seconds. When I recovered, I felt tears rolling down my face. I only ever cried when I lost loved ones, nothing else. These hallucinations were getting so bad that I lost control of my body. I picked up my tablet and checked for any damage from the fall. As far as I could tell, it was fine. It was still on the backstage camera feed, but Bonnie was standing at the door with his eyes in their sockets. Foxy was still at Pirate Cove, Chica moved back to the east hall and Freddy was unsurprisingly still on the show stage. I put my tablet down and sat there trying to contain my trembling for at least 3 minutes until I checked my watch. It was 2:47 AM. Time was passing faster than it seemed. I had 48% power left, which wasn't too bad. I checked my lights. After finding nothing there, I thought about Foxy and quickly checked Pirate Cove. The curtains were wide open, so I shut the left door as soon as I put my tablet down.

Foxy was taking longer than he normally did; maybe I caught him just as he left. After five minutes and hearing nothing, I checked Pirate Cove again, Foxy was waiting to sprint. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, he stayed there. Confused, I checked my lights before I opened the door, but nobody showed up. I checked the cameras, Foxy was still waiting and Bonnie was at the west hall corner. His head was twitching and I heard those same robotic voices. This made me twitchy, was I hallucinating again? I covered my ears and the sound was muffled. It was real. Chica was in the dining area. 3 AM, 42% power. I checked my lights, Bonnie was there. I froze for a second before closing the door. There was something new about him. It was something that I couldn't explain.

It was something that gave me a reason to fear my once loved animatronic.

While trying to figure it out, I heard a low pitched sound, almost like a distorted giggle. I checked the cameras, Pirate Cove's curtains were wide open and blinking a few times confirmed this. I nearly put my tablet down before I remembered that it was closed because Bonnie was still at my door. Chica was in the east hall corner, her head was also twitching and I heard those robotic voices again. The cameras jammed again and I realised that I forgot to check on Freddy. I heard another distorted giggle, similar to the first one, followed by Foxy banging on the door. I put my tablet down and checked my lights, Chica was at my right door, but Bonnie left. I checked the cameras a few minutes later, they were back online. The show stage was empty, worsening my trembling. I checked all the other cameras and didn't see Freddy anywhere. I searched the cameras carefully, and I saw white dots by the restrooms. Those were endoskeleton eyes. I looked closely and I saw a bear silhouette with a top hat. It was definitely Freddy.

I had no idea how to handle Freddy and as a result, a myriad of questions ran through my head. I stopped myself before I zoned out, because I had three other animatronics to deal with. Foxy was ready to sprint yet again, Bonnie was in the dining area and Chica was at my door. I tried to keep my trembling at bay because I needed sharp reflexes to survive. I checked my lights again after a few minutes, Chica left. I checked the cameras and found her in the east hall. Bonnie moved to the west hall corner and Pirate Cove was empty. The sign read "IT'S ME", but no amount of blinking changed it back. My left arm moved so fast to close that door that it hurt for a while afterwards. Freddy was still in the restrooms.

4:22 AM, 27% power. Foxy banged on the door, draining it down to 21%. I needed to be extra conservative. I couldn't help but to tremble. I could've died at any moment. I heard robotic voices again, so I just closed my eyes and tried to drown it out with other thoughts. Luckily, I was successful. As I checked my lights and opened my left door, I heard pots crashing to the ground. That Chica was a real clumsy bird. I checked the cameras, Foxy was patient, and kept the curtains closed. Bonnie was in the west hall, Freddy was still in the restrooms. I put my tablet down and heard another distorted giggle. I faintly heard Freddy's jingle. The restrooms were empty. When I switched to the kitchen camera, his jingle got louder which could only mean that Freddy Fazbear was in the kitchen. Chica was by the east hall corner, her head twitching violently along with the sound of robotic voices. I started breathing heavily, Freddy was getting closer and Chica's twitching was driving me insane. I put my tablet down.

I heard singing, "dada dum dum dum, dadum dum dum, dum dum dum dum diddley-dum dum dum". What the hell? Where was it coming from? I checked my lights, Bonnie was waiting there, so I closed the door. I scanned the cameras. When I switched to the Pirate Cove feed, it got louder. Foxy must have been bored or something. It didn't bother me too much, I was actually happy that Foxy decided to do something other than try to kill me for a change. Freddy's jingle ended, but I didn't see him anywhere else, so I assumed he was still in the kitchen. Chica didn't move from the east hall corner, except for her twitching of course.

5 AM, 13% power. If Foxy sprinted again, I was dead. Bonnie left my door, and Chica was taking her time at the corner. Foxy was behind Pirate Cove's curtains and the sign changed back to normal. I barely saw Freddy in the east hall. Just like the late phone guy said, he's more active in the dark. Freddy seems to try and hide from the cameras. I put my tablet down and had my blind spots under near constant surveillance. Didn't want Chica to sneak up on me and jam the door again. This carried on for a few minutes before I decided to check the cameras. I heard the distorted giggle yet again, Freddy and Chica swapped places. Freddy had his face up close to the camera and I heard "It's ME" along with the robotic voices. Having him up close to the camera like that made me see him with human eyes again. My vision was clouded by tears again and I put my tablet down and tried to close the right door. After accidentally turning the light on and off a few times I finally closed the right door. I let the tears roll down my face, even though I didn't want to, but I needed to see what was going on.

I wouldn't let Freddy get the best of me, so I bit my lip to keep my trembling at bay. I wasn't scared anymore. I was determined to get through this alive. I still had no idea what Freddy does when he's near the door, but he's sneaky and I had no doubt that he could get through the doorway without me noticing him. I assumed that he giggled when he moved, most of the time anyway. I had 40 more minutes of this insanity to go through. I had 9% power left, and Freddy wasn't helping it one bit. I heard the distorted giggling again and checked the cameras, Freddy moved to the east hall, swapping with Chica. Bonnie was far, in the dining area, while Foxy was peeking out. I opened the door immediately after I put my tablet down. 8% power left, I couldn't take any chances.

I checked the lights every two minutes and made lightning fast camera sweeps. Freddy didn't move, Chica was staying at the corner. Bonnie was staying out of my way. The time went by, my power went down. I was happy to see that I checked on Foxy enough, because he was still only peeking out. I had 12 minutes to go, with 4% power. If I kept it up, I would make it. After 3 minutes, I checked my lights and Chica decided to pop up at my door. I reached for the door button, but it was jammed. 9 minutes, 3% left. I didn't take chances by looking at the camera feed, just like the previous night. I just hoped Foxy or Freddy wouldn't screw me over. I didn't close the left door, since I would run out of power. With Freddy this close, I couldn't take the risk. The minutes felt like hours, I had 2% left, with 5 minutes to go. I sat there, not moving an inch. The fear of death had returned.

I heard footsteps and started trembling. I tried to keep still, but I was failing miserably. I heard Freddy giggling. He must have moved closer. I had no idea where. I had 2 and a half minutes left, the power just hit 1% and I knew this power rounded off to the nearest integer, so I had a little more power than I thought. The seconds went by and I tried closing the door, but it was still jammed. After hearing footsteps again, I had no idea where anybody but Chica was, so with one minute left, I checked the cameras one last time.

Pirate Cove's curtains were open, Bonnie was in the supply closet and Freddy was staring into the east hall corner camera. I was too scared to put my tablet down. I saw my power hit 0%, but I couldn't find it in me to put my tablet down. I heard footsteps. I started panicking. I felt a furry hand grab my wrist and heard a moan. The same moan I heard before the phone guy died.

Damn it,

I was next. I was bracing myself to be dragged by my wrist at any second. The camera feed jammed, I heard Freddy giggling again. This is it. The end of me, Mike Schmidt, attacked by animatronics that I used to love more than anything. I said my silent goodbyes to my parents, hoping that they'd hear me. I gripped my tablet so hard that I nearly broke it, but I nearly dropped it immediately after I heard the 6 AM bell.

I put my tablet down and saw Chica let go of me. Freddy was next to her. I-I survived? The odds were heavily against me, but I survived. Chica said "I'm hungry! Can I have some of your pizza?" and Freddy followed with "Welcome to my pizzeria, where fantasy and fun come to life!"

This reminded me of all the good times I had here. The animatronics would have arguments amongst themselves while walking around the pizzeria. Bonnie would sometimes accuse Freddy of hiding his guitar, and Freddy would say the kids must help find it. I seemed like the only kid who noticed the staff speaking through microphones. They had a few pre-recorded messages for when they just walk around, asking about the pizza, but they weren't advanced enough to argue by themselves. I smiled at these thoughts, but then I realised that I had spent over 6 minutes thinking about the good old times. I needed to get back to my apartment. I took my tablet and walked out through the west hall. I saw Foxy frozen there.

He said "A-a-aaarrgh me matey! N-never let an-any landlu-lubbers near ye-yer treasure!" when I walked past. I saw him singing his song, "dum dum dum dum diddley-dum dum dum" I smiled and started walking slower, taking in the old place. After another ten minutes, I finally made it to my car. I was still amazed that I survived. Despite every single one of these animatronics trying to kill me, I still loved them. They made my childhood. It's almost a shame that I had to find a way to shut them down. I had the rest of the day to figure out how to stop them from killing any more people, without blatantly destroying them. That would only cause legal issues. I didn't want to shut them down, but I had to. For the safety of people that would fall into this trap, but more importantly, for the kids that lost their lives here.


	9. Suspicious Activity

_(A/N: First of all, I'd like to apologise for my horrendous attempt at incorporating the Puppet into my story. This chapter was written by the time everyone thought the Puppet was in the kitchen, so I based this off of that. Second of all, another apology for updating so late. I've had a fairly busy week at school, so that's why. Lastly, in the letter, I made the mistakes in bold and with wavy lines **~~like this~~** because you can't use strikethroughs on this site. Enough from me, I hope you enjoy :P)_

* * *

 **Suspicious Activity**

As I was getting into my car, I remembered that the locks on the doors of the place were back in use, so I ran back, locked the door and saw a note from the manager. Quickly skimming over it, I saw that it said something along the lines of taking the keys after I lock up and some other stuff I didn't bother to read. I put the note in my pocket and got into my car.

The trip home felt a lot shorter than usual. Before I knew it, I was out of the shower. I didn't even remember getting in. Thought consumed my mind. I had to shut that place down early. If it shut down by the end of the year, more people would've fallen into the trap and it'd be my fault. I thought of just dismantling them, but I didn't want legal issues or the risk of them retaliating. I had to be subtle, but I had no idea what to do. I was completely blank. Breakfast went by in the blink of an eye, and the next time I checked the time, it was 9:40 AM. When my train of thought was going in circles, I gave up and went to sleep, hoping that I'd get another sign, but after ten minutes of tossing and turning, I remembered that I had to charge my tablet, so I did just that and tried to get some sleep.

I woke up at 4 PM without a memorable dream. I felt like I needed an obvious sign and I didn't get one. I only had one more night to shut those animatronics down, but I couldn't find a way to do that. I was completely stumped. Perhaps dismantling was the way to go. Having a criminal record or the lives of at least 10 people? I decided to go with jail. Now I had to think of a way to dismantle them, but before I could do that my stomach was calling me. I saw that I ran out of food and that my apartment was a mess, just great. I made myself presentable and went out to buy some food. I got a whole bunch of raw materials, but I was so hungry I went and bought a takeaway to go along with that. I got to my apartment and stocked up my fridge and started cleaning up while thinking of ways to dismantle Freddy and his friends.

They were far too strong for me to rip them apart with my bare hands, so I needed some sort of tool to help me get the job done, but I literally just got home from the supermarket. Perfect. After cleaning the kitchen and my room I checked around for any tools to take those animatronics apart. I really wish I had to do maintenance around the place so I'd have tools at the ready, but no. I got back to cleaning and started sorting my laundry and emptying pockets when I found that letter that the manager wrote. I put it on my desk and finished cleaning up my apartment. I gave myself a break and had some time watching some TV. It was 10:25 PM, still a while until my shift. I remembered that I bought a newspaper along with the other groceries, so I decided to read it.

There was stuff about gas prices going up, lost dogs being found, but one thing that really caught my eye was the fact that crime rates were rapidly decreasing in the area and loads of arrests being made that week. It even went as far as stating that the area hadn't been that safe since January. I checked the newspaper publication date, Tuesday, 9th of November 1993. That raised my suspicions on the legitimacy of the manager's story. He told me on Tuesday that there were criminals on the loose. That manager must've thought that I didn't read newspapers.

This gave me a new thought, to shut the place down with legal evidence. That thought got shut down as fast as it sprung up, mainly because I didn't have enough hard evidence. There were only the recordings from the late phone guy, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. Then I thought of the smell of death coming from the animatronics, they could find samples off of them. It got revived, but I quickly forgot about it after I remembered that letter from the manager. Thinking there might have been some helpful information on it, I got it from my desk. The letter read:

 _"Hey, **~~if~~** when you finish your shift, remember to lock up! Don't want any **~~criminals getting in or~~** of our animatronics getting **~~out~~** damaged by criminals! Keep the keys, you'll need them to get back into the **~~pize~~** pizzeria. One last thing, tomorrow at 6 PM I need you here in my office, you need your well earned pay cheque! Hope you **~~surv~~** had a good night!_

 _PS: Please excuse my mistakes, this was my fourth time trying to write this letter and I don't have a lot of time during the day."_

I was beginning to think the manager thought I was stupid. A small part of me saw why he could think such a thing, because I was going back to a job where my life could end so easily. Another part saw him being in a huge rush, while a larger part saw him as thinking I was stupid, but the logical part of me saw him as being nervous. He clearly knew that the animatronics were deadly, the mistake of putting "if" instead of "when" showed that. The second mistake seemed like he was thinking of what to write, "any criminals getting in or out" or "any animatronics getting damaged by criminals" and he chose the latter, but he still had the first sentence in his mind. That happens to me quite a bit, so I didn't take it seriously. Third mistake was clearly a spelling error, but the fourth and last one wasn't. I was almost certain that "surv" was going to be "survived". I also thought nothing of it because of the first mistake.

I still hadn't found a way to shut the animatronics down. I thought of working overtime to figure things out. Thinking of time, it was 11:30 PM. I had to get ready for my shift, so I packed in my tablet, got the keys for the pizzeria and made my way to the place. Learning from my previous shift, I'd much rather be early than late. Some snooping around the place before my shift wouldn't hurt. Locked doors wouldn't be a problem, since I had a whole belt of keys.

I got to the pizzeria at 11:40 PM. 20 minutes to snoop around. Considering the size of this place, I had more than enough time. I unlocked the door and checked the floor mapping to make sure I go about this in the most efficient way. I left the door open in case I found anything useful to put in my car. I put my tablet down in my office and went on my search, heading to the show stage first and checking areas around there so I won't be in danger by the time that my animatronic pals start roaming. I checked the animatronics first to see if there was anything of importance on them with no luck. I moved to the dining area and searched under the tables. Just dust. I went backstage and checked in and around the spare heads and the Freddy suit. You can't see it from the cameras, but those heads there clearly have blood stains on them. I started to wonder why the manager only locked the outer door, none of the ones inside. Maybe to give the animatronics more room to move around?

I moved to Pirate Cove and searched around there and found nothing. Wasn't really expecting anything in these places but it was worth searching anyway. I didn't check the restrooms because it smelled like excrement. I went to the kitchen and saw this weird puppet looking thing pinned on a wall. There was a sheet of paper pinned next to it, saying:

 _DO NOT TOUCH OR COME CLOSE TO THE PUPPET, SIMPLY IGNORE IT AND ASK NO QUESTIONS_

My curiosity got the best of me and I felt myself moving towards it. I felt a strange aura around me when I got near it. Something inside me told me to look somewhere else, so I did. Around the kitchen there wasn't anything important, but that puppet thing stayed in my mind. As I was exiting the kitchen, I heard a whisper:

 _ **Please stay**_

I turned around to see if anything was different in the kitchen, but again I found nothing. I had a feeling that this puppet was the one whispering to me. That strange aura I felt couldn't have been a coincidence. I walked out of the kitchen and checked my watch. I had 7 minutes left to check the rest of the place. I spent more time than I thought looking for clues, so I decided to pick up my pace. I walked briskly to the supply closet, but I only found cleaning supplies. I was hoping for that to hold clues, but I guess my hopes were crushed. I went into my office and got ready for my shift, but then I realised that I didn't check the manager's office. I must have missed it because it wasn't part of the floor plan. I went back to the kitchen, but I went straight instead of turning left to head to the workstation. I could hardly see the door until I bumped into it, it was so dark. My eyes took about a minute to adjust enough to notice the two locks on the door and spent another minute fumbling with the keys to open them. I got in and checked his drawers, files, some money, rules, but I finally found something that would help me shut the place down early: The animatronics' manual.

I checked for anything else that I could've used and found nothing, so I took the manual and locked the door. After checking the time, I saw that I had two minutes before my shift started. I wouldn't have enough time to read through everything so I went and put the manual in my car in case I forgot about it. After tossing it onto the back seat, locking my car and closing the front door, I decided to get to my office by going past the kitchen. I poked my head inside and noticed a faint glow coming off the puppet. I felt that same aura around me, this time from far away, and broke into a run without even realising it. That aura was driving me away, but the whisper pleaded with me to stay. This place was confusing me. I got to my office safely with only a little bit of breath to catch, so I sat down and caught that small bit of breath. Half a minute later, the phone rang.

This left me confused, wasn't the phone guy dead? Did he survive that? I highly doubted it. I even checked the Freddy suit while snooping around and saw the endoskeleton inside. I checked the cameras as the recording started playing automatically. Everyone was on stage and Foxy was behind the curtains, as I expected. However, the recording was a mess of robotic garble that I couldn't make out. I heard a mess of low pitch screeches amongst the garble. This made me feel uneasy, like the aura that that puppet gave off. It felt like the blood was draining out of my face and my hands, I started trembling uncontrollably and even blanked out for a second. After that I decided to cut the recording short and focus on my shift. I checked the cameras again. Foxy was peeking out, all the animatronics on stage were staring into the camera. Then the camera feed went offline. I knew at that moment that I was in for a very difficult night.


	10. A Night to Remember

**A Night to Remember**

After about 10 minutes the cameras came back online. Surprisingly, only Bonnie was missing from the show stage and he ended up being in the dining area. Even after the 10 minutes of waiting for the cameras to come back online I was still trembling, though only slightly. My face and hands felt very warm, which could only mean that I started sweating already. Hopefully I wouldn't have all the water in my body in a puddle of sweat on the floor by the time I finished my shift, if I even survive my last night of this terror. I wished I had water with me. My mind was wandering off, but that stopped after mindlessly checking my lights and finding Bonnie at my door. I shut the door quickly and checked the time. It was 12:25 AM. It felt like my mind was only wandering for 2 minutes, not 15. A camera sweep revealed that Chica was in the restrooms, Freddy was on stage and Foxy was peeking out. I also had 90% power left, so far so good. My tension eased a bit after knowing where every animatronic was.

I checked the lights again, Bonnie stayed where he was. My trembling subsided, but I felt a sense of fear that I hadn't felt during my previous shifts. I guess the reality of my situation caught up to me. After I checked the lights again, I saw that Bonnie decided to move away from my door, so I opened it and checked the cameras. Bonnie was at the west hall corner. His head was twitching and it made me feel uneasy. I checked Pirate Cove, Foxy was still only peeking out. Freddy was on stage but Chica was nowhere to be found, so I checked my lights and found nothing. I was wondering where she could've been until I jumped at a loud clattering of pots and pans. Things were actually calmer than I was expecting, but then again it was only the start of the night.

I felt pretty relaxed until I heard Freddy's distorted giggling. My tension returned and I checked my lights and the cameras. Bonnie was standing in the supply closet, Chica was in the East Hall, Foxy was ready to sprint and Freddy was off stage. I searched around for him and assumed that two white dots at the far end of the dining area were his endoskeleton eyes. I was so tense that my muscles started aching. I tried calming myself down, but it was barely effective. I checked my lights and Chica showed up at my door. I was slow to close the door, a sign that I was panicking. I stupidly left the door light on and stared into Chica's possessed eyes. At that moment I thought of my nightmare and felt the same hopelessness I felt while experiencing my nightmare. The thought of seeing my parents dead on the ground as the animatronics caught me made me feel like crying. I was shaking like there was an earthquake happening.

I turned off the door light and just sat there trying to control myself. I checked the cameras with teary eyes and noticed that Pirate Cove was empty. I shut my left door and waited for Foxy. I closed my eyes for a bit to try to calm myself down and I heard a banging noise. After a while I opened my eyes and in front of me stood Bonnie. He ripped off his face and stared at me with his endoskeleton eyes. This was it, the end of Mike Schmidt. I stopped trembling and just stared at Bonnie hopelessly. He started fading away right before my eyes, I was hallucinating again. Instead of being scared by it, it actually helped me to calm down in a way that I couldn't explain. I became aware of what was going on again and I could concentrate on staying alive. I checked my lights, Chica left and nobody was at my left door, so I opened both of my doors.

I made a quick camera sweep and saw that Foxy was behind his curtains. Freddy was still in the dining area, Bonnie was in the West Hall and Chica was in the restrooms. It was 1:40 AM and I had 70% power left. I had to be extremely conservative with my power, or else it was really the end for me. I started making only quick camera sweeps and checking my lights every 2 and a half minutes. This chewed through time and before I knew it, it was 2 AM. Thankfully the animatronics were keeping to themselves, with the exception of Foxy. He was peeking out of his curtains. I had four hours to go with 65% power left. I considered checking the lights every 3 minutes, but I figured that those 30 seconds could be the difference between life and death in this situation. Time went by and the next time I checked, it was 2:15 AM. Things were going well, but they could easily change within 3 hours and 45 minutes.

After another 2 and a half minutes I checked my lights and Chica was waiting at my door. I checked the cameras straight afterwards and saw that Foxy was ready to sprint and Bonnie's head was violently twitching at the west hall corner. Freddy stayed in the dining area. Since Chica was at my door, I checked the lights more often to see when I could open the door. She refused to move. After a little bit, Bonnie decided to join her by popping up at my left door. I was just checking my door lights at this point and I heard Freddy's giggle again. Bonnie left, but I checked for Foxy before I opened the door. He wasn't at Pirate Cove. I checked the rest of the cameras for Freddy and found him in the restrooms. I put my tablet down and heard Foxy banging on the door. I checked for Chica and she finally left. I started trembling again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. It was 2:35 AM and I had 50% power left. I could make it if I conserved as much power as possible, but it would be tricky considering the animatronics have minds of their own.

I checked my lights and cameras. Bonnie and Chica were at the west and east hall corners, their heads twitching. I started feeling really uneasy and decided to close the doors while I could still keep control of myself. Foxy was behind Pirate Cove's curtains and Freddy was still in the restroom. I heard that same garble from the recording at the start of the night and my trembling got worse and worse. I checked the west hall corner and Bonnie wasn't there, but the poster there looked very strange, with Freddy up close and without eyes. I nearly dropped my tablet the way I was shaking, but I managed to put it down safely. I looked up and saw Freddy with golden fur slumped down, mouth open and without eyes, like he was lacking an endoskeleton. I felt extremely uneasy and nauseous at the sight of it, not to mention I was terrified that it was going to kill me. I heard a whisper:

 _ **It's ME**_

It didn't sound like the other whispers, it sounded aggressive. I started uncontrollably tearing up again. My vision faded and I heard a distorted scream. Visions of Bonnie without his eyes, Chica and Foxy with blood stained mouths and Freddy with human eyes flashed through my mind. The last thing I remember before hitting the ground was the face I saw on the poster, the yellow bear.

Darkness took over, and I felt myself slowly drifting away. My eyes were wide open. All I saw was a faint light. It seemed close, but as I tried to reach for it I found that it was so far away. I heard water dripping, accompanied by robotic garble and another distorted scream. I closed my eyes and opened them to find that I was on the floor in a puddle. I felt my nose dripping and tears streaming down my face uncontrollably. Both of my doors were open, I distinctly remembered closing them before I blanked out. Then I realised that it was dark, like there was no power. I heard robotic garble and an aggressive whisper:

 _ **It's ME**_

At that moment Bonnie and Chica walked in. My eyes adjusted enough to notice that Bonnie had no face. They were both twitching. I felt helpless as they pulled my towards the Freddy suit backstage. There was a patch down the hall with a very dim glow, and I noticed that Chica's mouth was stained with blood. I also saw that my clothes were stained with red. That meant that the puddle that I felt in the office was blood, my nose was bleeding. I saw Foxy while being dragged backstage. His hook was dripping and I felt a stinging pain in my back, like I had been cut. I was getting lifted to be stuffed, but I had no emotions running through my head. I didn't know what to feel so I decided to take my fate as it was.

Nobody was there to hear me screaming as my legs got crushed. Bonnie and Chica went about it slowly and left me with the upper half of my body hanging out of the suit's mouth. They walked off and Freddy took over. He went about it a bit faster, less agonising for me. Freddy played his jingle and slowly I felt my organs failing and blood flowing straight out of my body. He got to my head and I saw my teeth popping out onto the floor. At this point I didn't feel any pain, and I was glad to be put out of my misery after a whole five minutes of slowly getting crushed. I closed my eyes for the last time.

At that moment my eyes shot open. I felt a strong pain in my back and I was so cold that I was shivering. I hit the ground quite hard when I fell. My eyes were wet with tears and there was a puddle of sweat on the ground next to where I lay. The lights were on and the fan was spinning. I was wondering what was real and what was fake, but even feeling as miserable as I was at the moment, I knew that I was alive. After shivering on the ground and feeling happy that I was actually alive, I realised that I was still working my shift, so I slowly clambered on to my chair. I checked the door lights and opened my doors. It was around 2:55 AM and I had 36% power left. I had blacked out for 20 minutes. I suddenly remembered the yellow bear slumped down in front of my eyes, the poster and the visions. All this added trembling to accompany my shivering. Freddy's giggling reminded me to check the cameras.

Foxy was getting ready to sprint, Bonnie and Chica were in the dining area and I could barely see the silhouette of Freddy in the East Hall. I had to be extra conservative with my power, especially since my doors were closed for a whole 20 minutes. If I hadn't closed them when I did, my nightmare would've been a reality. I went back to my routine of checking the lights and cameras every 2 and a half minutes. It seemed like the perfect amount of time for both my chance of survival and my power conservation, so I stuck with it. At 3:20 AM, Foxy sprinted down the hall and took my power down to 22%. I had to survive 2 hours and 40 minutes with 22% power. It was a long shot, but I told myself that it could be done. I checked to see if I could turn off the fan, but the switch didn't work and the plug was out of sight, so I left it. Another few routine checks rolled by along with the time and I made it to 4 AM with 17% power left. It was a really quiet forty minutes, besides the fact that I was still shivering. I was doing well with conserving my power. A quick camera sweep revealed that Foxy was only peeking out, Bonnie was in the supply closet, Chica was in the restroom and Freddy was still in the East Hall.

At this point I actually wanted something dangerous to happen to get my heart pumping because shivering like that wasn't cutting it for me. Then I realised that I'd rather shiver and survive than be warm due to fear and die because of a stupid move. After checking the lights, both Bonnie and Chica made me jump because I wasn't expecting them to show up so soon. I was hoping that Chica wasn't going to stay at my door as long as she normally did. Thankfully, Chica left soon after, but Bonnie decided to stay. I resorted to checking my lights constantly until Bonnie left to save on power usage, but after about the fourth time I started to see that it was only draining my power more quickly. I checked the straight after I saw Bonnie leave, but they were offline. I put my tablet down, terrified because I didn't know where the animatronics were. At that moment, I heard Freddy's giggle and closed my right door just to be safe. I took a huge chance with Foxy by leaving my left door open. All this meant that my heart rate went through the roof. The only good thing about that was that I stopped shivering.

The cameras came back online after about 10 minutes. I saw Freddy in the East Hall Corner, Bonnie was backstage, Chica was in the Dining Hall and Foxy was surprisingly still only peeking out of his curtains. It was 4:35 AM and I had 13% power left, which left me feeling terrified that I was going to run out of power. I tried my best to keep calm in the situation, but failed terribly. I was trembling like a dog straight out of the rain. I heard Freddy giggle again, so I checked the cameras. He moved back to the East Hall, so I opened my right door. Chica was nowhere to be found and she wasn't by my door, so I was panicking until I heard pans crashing onto the ground. It made me jump, but I was glad that I knew where she was. Bonnie moved to the Dining Area and Foxy was ready to sprint. If that damned animatronic fox sprinted again I would be screwed, so I kept a very close eye on him.

My shakiness was making me less accurate with checking the lights and cameras, so I was less efficient with my power. I decided to use a full 5 minutes to try and calm myself down. It was pretty effective, but I heard Freddy giggle after only a minute. I closed my right door and checked the cameras. Freddy was where I expected him to be and Foxy was in the same position. I made a stupid move by not checking my left door light, but luckily Bonnie wasn't there, instead he was in the supply closet and Chica was in the East Hall. I was kind of glad that Freddy interrupted me, because I was sure that if he didn't then Foxy was going to come for me. After my routine 2 and a half minutes passed, I saw that Freddy and Chica had swapped places, so I opened my right door.

Time went by quite slowly, along with my power, but eventually I reached 5 AM with 9% power. I had to be extremely cautious of my power usage, since even the smallest amount of power wasted could be the end of me. I added 15 seconds to my light and camera checking intervals, had to conserve as much power as possible. Chica finally moved from the East Hall Corner to the doorway. It wasn't exactly a good thing, but it released a bit of tension that was welling up inside of me. Bonnie was in the West Hall Corner with his head twitching like there was an electric shock going through his endoskeleton. Foxy was being patient with me, which I really needed, unfortunately I couldn't say the same for Freddy, who was in the East Hall Corner waiting for Chica to move away from my door. I watched as my power drained slowly and the time slowly passed. Chica and Freddy had to move away quickly or I was stuffed, literally. After 3 minutes, Chica decided to move away from my door, but Freddy was making sure that I knew he wasn't going to move.

My power was at 4% and I had 35 minutes to go, 5:25 AM. Things were not looking good for me at all. I checked my lights and cameras, Freddy moved to the East Hall, Chica was in the restrooms, Foxy was still ready to sprint. Bonnie was still twitching away at the West Hall Corner. My trembling eased a very slight bit as I opened my right door. As the time rolled by, Bonnie was moving in and out of different parts of the building, unlike his three friends. I was glad he started moving around other places, because it meant that he had something to keep him from killing me. Before I knew it, it was 5:45 AM. 15 more minutes and I was home free. My only problem was that I only had 2% power left. Foxy was also worrying me because he was going to sprint at any second. I felt my trembling skyrocket and my heart pound against my chest. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to die from a heart attack instead of getting stuffed.

Bonnie unexpectedly showed up at my door, so I had to close it. My heart rate was rising with every passing second of the door being closed. I gave up on checking the light every 10 seconds because of the risk of Foxy banging on my door. Surely enough, Foxy sprinted down the hall and depleted all of my power. I felt so defeated since I thought that I actually had a chance, but Foxy came along and took it away from me. I sat there with my hope and energy drained, knowing that Freddy would get me any second. It was 5:54 AM by the time he started playing his jingle. I was surprised it took him so long to get to me, especially since he was in the East Hall. I thought of everything I wanted to do, but couldn't. I thought of how I failed to stop the animatronics and everything that happened in the past week. Before I could even process it, Freddy's jingle stopped. Within the next few minutes I was going to live through the horror of my dream.

It reminded me of my nightmare and I lived through it mentally again while waiting to be killed. I was actually amazed that my brain could simulate the pain of being stuffed, though I was sure that it was going to be a hundred times worse. I remembered being dragged through the hall, the blood stains, my teeth popping right out onto the floor, every tiny little detail. Then it happened.

The 6 AM bell rang. I didn't know what to think. Freddy took his sweet time and it resulted in me staying alive. My eyes had adjusted enough to see his silhouette in the doorway. I began wondering why he stayed there, but I was just relieved to be alive, since the whole night was more draining than the ones before it. As I packed my tablet and walked to my car, I realised that I hadn't shut the animatronics down. I started thinking of ways to do it quickly, but I wouldn't have enough time. I walked out of the pizzeria and locked up, then got into my car and drove home to my apartment. When I got out, of my car I saw the animatronic manual on my passenger seat. This only meant one thing:

I had to work overtime.


	11. Over the Limit

**Over the Limit**

I walked into my apartment and put my tablet along with the animatronic manual down on my desk. As usual, I took a shower and had some food, but this time I just couldn't get myself to fall asleep. My body was exhausted but my mind was racing. I had to go back and stop the animatronics, but by this time the staff would already be there. So to stop them discreetly I had to work overtime. This filled my mind with dread, making it even harder to fall asleep. After about an hour of tossing and turning, I felt myself drifting off. Just before I could finally fall asleep, I got a phone call from the manager.

"Hello?"

"Uh hello? Hello, hello?"

"Hello, it's Mike"

"Oh hi! Hope you had a good night. Uh, listen, I need to see you later today, gotta pick up your paycheck!"

Without even thinking, I said

"Uh no, that won't be necessary, I'll be working overtime"

"That's.. interesting. No one's is really willing to work overtime for a job like this, hehe"

"No, I really enjoy this job," I lied.

"Oh, hehe, okay then, so you'll be here tonight?"

"Yeah"

"Alright, so I'll give you your paycheck tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, I guess"

"A-alright then, ha-have a good day"

Then he dropped the phone. His tone reminded me of the phone guy. Thoughts were rushing in and out of my mind and after another half an hour of failing to fall asleep, I gave up. I checked the time and saw that it was already 8:50 AM, so I got up, put my tablet on the charger and mindlessly watched some TV. My mind was so cluttered that I forgot about the animatronic manual. I wasn't all too happy with myself for not finding a way to shut the animatronics down earlier, and I really didn't want to go back to that blasted pizzeria. After 3 hours of thinking about a lot more pointless, redundant things and failing to pay attention to the TV, I found myself asleep in my chair.

I woke up at 10 PM, feeling energised. I was quite grateful, especially since I was going to need it. Only problem was that it didn't help my back all too much, which was in a lot of pain from falling during my previous shift. All that thinking and eventual sleeping helped to clear my mind, and I remembered the animatronic manual. I got up off my chair and went to my desk to read through it. The first few pages were each of the individual animatronics and endoskeleton structure, stuff that wasn't of any use to me. I skimmed through all of the pages. They were mainly about how the animatronics worked along with some warnings of what not to do. I was starting to worry that the manual wasn't going to help me shut the animatronics down. When I got to the back of it, it was only troubleshooting.

I was hoping to find something under troubleshooting, but skimming wasn't helping me. I decided to read the 'common issues and how to resolve' section in depth. None of the things were really of use to me, like endoskeleton joints locking, the animatronics twitching while walking, how was that going to help me? After scanning the whole manual for about half an hour, I finally found something:

 _If an animatronic begins to slow down normal function, it could be a sign of the recharging system failing. If you are unable to charge the animatronic manually at the time, you can engage overdrive mode. This mode allows the animatronic to perform with maximum efficiency and with as much movement as possible, which often automatically fixes the recharging system at the cost of more battery power consumption while overdrive is active. Each animatronic has a specific procedure to engage overdrive mode in an attempt to prevent sabotage, which you can find on each of the respective animatronics' guide pages._

 _WARNING: DO NOT LEAVE THE ANIMATRONIC IN OVERDRIVE MODE FOR MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY (120) MINUTES AS THIS CAN RENDER THE ANIMATRONIC USELESS DUE TO IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE ENDOSKELETON CAUSED BY FAILURE OF THE COOLING SYSTEM LEADING TO MAJOR CIRCUITRY AND JOINT FAILURE. THE FAILURE OF THE COOLING SYSTEM CAN HEAT THE BATTERY TO EXTREME TEMPERATURES WHICH CAN CAUSE IT TO EXPLODE._

Overdrive mode. I was beginning to wonder how I never saw that the first time or even thought of it at all. Never mind that, one thing was clear to me. I had to put them into overdrive mode for what I hoped to be my final night. Overdrive for overtime, great. My chances of survival would be the lowest for the whole week, which made me extremely scared. I was hoping that even if I did get caught, the animatronics would shut down. If they didn't, I would die for nothing. The odds were stacked against me, but I was determined to shut them down and I wasn't going to back out that far in. It was more than a job at that point, it was a mission.

It was 11:25 PM, so I got ready for my shift. I made sure I had everything that I needed: tablet, animatronic manual and the keys for the pizzeria. I got everything together, put it in my car and left my apartment at 11:35 PM. When I got to the pizzeria, I realised that I was in for a long night. Without wasting time, I got everything I needed and went inside. I walked to the show stage and began putting the animatronics into overdrive. It wasn't a complicated procedure, just removing parts of the animatronics like one of their ears and pushing a button, different for them all. I felt scared while I was on the show stage so close to the lifeless animatronics, so I went about it as fast as I could. Bonnie's overdrive button was under his right ear, Freddy's was under his hat and Chica's was on her face behinf her beak. I was done on the show stage after a minute, so I made my way to Pirate Cove. I felt a sense of true fear as I walked through the place, one that I haven't felt before. I went into Pirate Cove and saw Foxy behind the curtains. He looked even more lifeless than the rest, due to his state of disrepair. Putting Foxy into overdrive meant that I had to remove one of his eyes to expose the button. It was quite tricky, but after carefully following the instructions in the manual, I did it eventually. It was 11:50 PM, ten minutes until my shift.

I decided to put the animatronic manual back in the manager's office to try and cover up my attempt at shutting them down, but as I was walking down the hall I knew that he would find out it was me. This meant that there was a chance that the manager would take legal action, which I tried to avoid. It was too late to think of anything else, so I just had to accept anything that would happen to me. I got to the manager's office, put the manual back where I found it and locked the door on my way out. I walked quite slowly to my office with thoughts going in and out of my head. I got to my office at 11:58 PM, just two minutes until my worst shift of the week.

When 12 AM hit, there was no phone call. I was glad, because it meant that I could give all my attention to my shift. One wrong move and I was dead. At that moment I knew that I was in for the worst six hours of my life.

* * *

 _(A/N: One thing, I don't know much about what happens when you overclock a machine, so don't quote me on the note about overdrive. Later)_


	12. Final Hours

**Final Hours**

Not even a minute into my shift and I was already trembling, though only slightly. I knew it was going to be an extremely tough night, but I had to stay calm. Immediately when I checked the cameras, Freddy, Bonnie and Chica were staring into the show stage camera and the video feed went black. I decided to conserve as much power as I could right from the start, since it was a huge thing that could land me on either side of the thin line between life and death later in my shift. I checked my door lights and the cameras every minute while I waited for the camera feed to come back online and after ten minutes, they were back to normal.

Bonnie and Chica moved to the dining area, Freddy stayed on stage and Foxy didn't move from behind his curtains at Pirate Cove. Knowing where the animatronics were helped to calm me down and soon my trembling subsided. I decided to check my lights and cameras every 2 minutes instead of my usual 2 minutes 30 seconds, due to the fact that the animatronics were a lot more active. The intervals between my checks felt very long, leaving more room in my mind for my fear to take over, but I kept myself calm for a while. After working at the place for five days you start learning how to do that. I checked my lights and surprisingly, Bonnie was in my left doorway, waiting for me with those huge, lifeless eyes. I shut the door immediately when I saw his face.

It was only 12:36 AM and Bonnie was already showing up at my door. I checked my other door light and the cameras. Chica was in the restrooms, Freddy was on stage and Foxy was peeking out of his curtains. I also saw Bonnie standing like a statue in the supply closet, but he left just as quickly as he showed up. I put my tablet down and checked the light, just to be safe. I saw Bonnie's silhouette. What? I checked the cameras, I saw him in the supply closet again. As far as I knew, there weren't any second suits for the animatronics except for Freddy, only spare heads. Even if there were, they would've been kept backstage like the Freddy Fazbear suit, not in the supply closet. I stared at the Bonnie in the camera feed for a few seconds and he slowly faded away. I was hallucinating again, so early in the night.

I already started hallucinating before 1 AM, so I started to wonder how bad my mind was going to get later in the night. I checked my lights again and saw that Bonnie actually left, but he only moved to the west hall corner, his head twitching violently. Chica stayed in the restrooms, Freddy was still on stage and Foxy was still peeking out of his curtains. As I put my tablet down, I heard robotic garble and images of Bonnie without his face flashed through my mind. It reminded me of my nightmare, which only caused images of Chica and Foxy with blood stained mouths to form alongside the eyeless Bonnie. I felt uncontrollable tears roll down my face as I slowly lost control of my body. I was slipping of my chair while shaking like there was an earthquake happening inside my body.

I hit the ground hard, which wasn't helping my back at all, but it snapped my mind back to the current situation. It was 12:45 AM and I had 87% power left. I was glad to see that I was conserving my power quite well. I wiped the tears off of my face with my shirt and checked the lights. Bonnie was back at my door. I couldn't help but stare into his fake eyes. They looked so soulless, like his main purpose was to kill me. I closed the door and heard pots and pans crashing to the ground. This reminded me to check the cameras. Foxy was still only peeking out and Freddy was staring into the show stage camera. Then my camera feed turned black and I heard Freddy's distinct giggling.

I put my tablet down and out of habit, I checked the lights. My left door light was showing through the door without any objects obstructing the light, but when I opened it I saw Bonnie. Normally his silhouette would be there, but this time it wasn't. It confused me, but after a while he faded away and I heard running footsteps. I shut my left door and heard Foxy banging on the door. My hands went cold as I saw the door crack. He didn't stop banging on the door and he eventually made a hole large enough for him to get into the office. I was absolutely terrified at the fact that he actually broke through the door. When he was about to gut me with his hook, Foxy, along with the hole in my door, faded away after I blinked. All the hallucinations were making me a lot more jumpy than usual, which made even the smallest things scare me to death.

I checked my lights and cameras again. Nobody was at my doors and the cameras were still offline. I used a minute of my time trying to calm myself down. In the state that I was, I wasn't exactly going to be accurate with closing doors and checking lights. The minute didn't help me much, since it only felt like a second had passed, so I checked the cameras again, still offline. I had no idea where the animatronics were and how long it would be before Foxy decided to sprint. It utterly destroyed any calmness I had left in me, and I couldn't stop trembling no matter how hard I tried. I heard Freddy's giggle again. He moved at an alarming rate and I had no clue where he was. I started checking the cameras more often to see when they were back online and at 1 AM, my camera feed was finally working again.

I had 83% power left to last 5 more hours, which I was relatively happy about. I immediately checked the cameras, I saw Foxy was ready to sprint, Chica was by the east hall corner with her violently twitching head, Bonnie was in the dining area and I could barely make out Freddy's silhouette in the restrooms. I started feeling a lot less scared since I knew exactly where all the animatronics were. I even stopped trembling. Everything was back to what I considered normal from my previous five nights, only the animatronics were really aggressive. I made another round of checking my lights and cameras. Chica was at my door and Foxy was nowhere to be seen in Pirate Cove, so I immediately closed both of my doors. Bonnie was standing in the supply closet and Freddy was still in the restrooms. I switched to the west hall corner camera feed and noticed that the poster seemed to have changed to something I certainly didn't want to be reminded of.

The face of the yellow bear.

I heard a little girl giggle as I put my tablet down. Once again, the yellow bear was right by my desk, slumped down in the same way as my previous night. I started wondering how it got there in the first place, since both of my doors were closed. I stared into its empty eye sockets and felt a cold aura sweeping over me. I started thinking it was just a hallucination, since I saw no visible endoskeleton, but how could a hallucination cause me to black out?

I felt my hands getting numb and the aura growing stronger, so I made a quick decision to distract myself. The first thing I noticed when I checked the cameras again was that the poster changed back to Freddy, strange. I put my tablet back down and saw no sign of the yellow bear. So it was just a hallucination. I felt blood flowing back into my hands and the aura shrinking into non-existence. I was relieved that it was just a hallucination, but at the same time I was worried that I was hallucinating like this. Not to mention that the yellow bear has actually caused me to black out.

I found myself drifting off in thought, but before I zoned out completely, Foxy banged on my door. What a way to snap back to reality. I noticed my power drop ever so slightly when he was finished, so I hastily opened the door. I wish I could've done the same for my right door, but Chica just refused to move. It was bad for both my power and my sanity, but I was expecting the demonic animatronic chicken to stay there for a while. I checked the cameras and saw Bonnie in the dining area, Freddy's nearly invisible silhouette in the restrooms and Pirate Cove's curtains closed. The animatronics were more patient than I was expecting, but then again it was quite early in the night.

I checked my door lights every thirty seconds in case Chica decided to leave, but she didn't. She just stood there, beak open, eyes looking a tiny bit squint. It would've been a little humourous if this damned chicken was friendly, but it wasn't. After the fourth time checking the lights, I checked the cameras. None of the other animatronics moved. It helped my constant trembling a tiny little bit. While waiting my routine thirty seconds, I noticed some heat radiating from the right door. I was getting worried that my door's electric system was beginning to fail, but then I remembered that I put the animatronics in overdrive. Chica's cooling system was failing. To go along with that, she finally decided to leave, so I opened the door and felt just how hot the air actually was.

I started feeling glad that my plan to stop them was actually working, but it was quickly drowned out by fear after I heard Freddy's giggle. I speedily checked the cameras and found that Bonnie was in the west hall corner, Chica was in the east hall corner and Foxy was peeking out again, but I couldn't find Freddy anywhere. I assumed that he was in the kitchen, since he wasn't anywhere else, but I still searched all the cameras just to be safe. I noticed something strange in the east hall; pictures of crying children that were never there before. I blinked a few times and they were replaced by writing on the wall:

 _ **IT'S ME**_

I started hearing robotic garble again and I put my tablet down before I started losing control of my body. I started breathing heavily and I felt my heart pounding, but before anything serious happened, I heard Freddy's jingle. A single uncontrolled tear rolled down my face before I regained control. My heart rate was slowing down and the garble stopped. I wasn't sure if I was just lucky or if the hallucinations were losing their effect on me, but I didn't give it much thought. Instead, I just carried on with my routine checks.

It was only 2:15 AM, and I had 65% power left. Time felt like it was passing so slowly, which was not good for my sanity at all. I was already experiencing hallucination after hallucination, so it made me worry more than what was healthy. To make things worse, I was sweating quite a lot, and the hot air that was lingering in the office was not helping me at all. This thought made me notice that more hot air was radiating from the left of my office. I checked the lights and Bonnie was there, so I shut the door. At first I thought of it as an advantage, because I'd know if an animatronic was by my door without even checking the lights. After thinking about it for a while, it proved to balance itself out with the disadvantage of having more heat in my office. Nothing ever goes my way, does it?

I checked my cameras, Chica moved to the east hall, Foxy was still only peeking out and Freddy was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed that he was still in the kitchen. I checked my lights a few seconds after I put my tablet down, Bonnie left as quickly as he showed up, so I checked the cameras again to find him. I could barely make out a silhouette in the west hall, but after I saw the rabbit ears I knew it was Bonnie. Suddenly I lost vision of everything else only to see Bonnie staring at me without his eyes. I couldn't feel anything, like I was paralysed. Then, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my back and I was looking at the ceiling. I fell off my chair again.

I could actually feel things again, but my back was killing me. It felt like déjà vu as I clambered back onto my chair. I started thinking of the yellow bear and heard more robotic garble. I just shut my eyes as tightly as I could and clenched my teeth until it was over. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, but the garble finally ended. The hallucinations were really getting out of hand, one after the other, springing from simple thoughts. A few unwanted tears rolled down my face when I finally came to my senses. I felt cold, but the heat in the air would fix that soon enough. I wanted to check my lights and cameras, but then I realised that my tablet wasn't where I normally put it. I found it on the floor next to where I hit the ground. I picked it up and saw, in the dim light of my office, that the screen was cracked. A crack running from the top left to the middle of the screen, where it sprouted in a sort of web towards the right

I felt really disappointed and hopeless. Not only was I hallucinating so much that I struggled to see what was real, but I also had limited vision of what was being broadcasted through the camera feed. Things were not in my favour at all. It was 3:15 AM, and I had 53% power left. I blacked out for that long? I immediately checked the cameras. Bonnie was in the dining area along with Chica and I could just see Freddy's silhouette in the east hall. Pirate Cove's curtains were wide open and the sign read:

 _ **IT'S ME**_

I closed my left door, which hurt my back, and waited for Foxy. I heard another aggressive whisper:

 _ **It's ME**_

It was plaguing my mind. Who was "ME"? Why was this happening? Just.. Why? I had no clue, but my train of questions was stopped by my back. I could barely move without my back hurting. I felt so defeated. My cracked screen and aching back only made it more difficult for me to defend myself against these animatronics, not to mention all the hallucinations. My chance of survival was slim to none. I just sat there, knowing that I wasn't going to make it. For the first time in a really long time, I actually cried real tears.

I just sat there, crying. I wasn't going to make it. That thought just ran in and out of my head, and it was destroying any sense of hope I still had in me. I was stuck in this empty office, much like many other people who made a huge mistake to work at Freddy's. I was going to add to the number of people that died there. I realised that I stopped shedding tears and started feeling anger burning inside of me. How could I have been so stupid to come and work at this deadly place? Why was I lying to the manager, making it seem like I actually wanted to risk my life? None of it made sense to me. Looking back on what I did, I see how foolish I was saying all that rubbish just to find out more about this place, nearly getting me killed every night. Only difference was, this night would kill me for sure. I could barely move without back pain, hallucinations were plaguing my mind and my tablet's screen was cracked.

After a few minutes, I realised that I was just thinking negative thoughts and bringing myself down. It was clear that I was just wasting my own time by doing this, and so I decided to try and keep myself alive, even though it was going to be the biggest challenge of my life. If I was going to get out, I might as well go out with a fight. I pulled myself together and got back into the fight for my survival. I saw that it was 3:35 AM. I wasted an entire 20 minutes? My power was at 50%. At first I was confused but then I saw that my left door was closed and I remembered that Foxy was on his way before I started crying. Something was strange though, I would've heard Foxy bang on my door and my power would've been lower than that.

I decided to check my lights and cameras and Foxy was surprisingly still ready to sprint; yet another hallucination to toy with my sanity. Bonnie moved to the supply closet, Chica moved to the restrooms and I could barely see Freddy in the east hall, mainly because of the huge crack in my tablet's screen. I checked the rest of the cameras just to make sure and I could just see Bonnie's silhouette in the west hall under the cracks. What? I checked the supply closet again and Bonnie stood there like the statue he pretended to be. I had no idea what was real, so I put my tablet down gently and slowly opened my left door. My back pain was certainly real. I barely moved while I waited for my routine 2 minutes to go by, it just hurt too much to move and I had no idea how to ease the pain other than sit upright like a statue. I felt like I was paralysed.

A minute went by in what felt like a few years to me, so I decided to try and find a way in which I can close the doors and check the lights with minimal back pain. The buttons were too far away for me to just extend my arms, so I had to lean over a little bit to reach them. I tested to see the smallest amount of leaning that I had to do and I immediately found that I wasn't going to be able to close the doors quickly if I had to lean over. I tried moving my chair, but it didn't have wheels. Picking it up with me would take too much time. Then I'd have to get down on it again and hurt my back even more and repeat the process for the other door. Dragging it on the floor proved to be quite bumpy, so I threw the idea of moving my chair out of my mind.

It felt like I was taking forever just trying to find a way to check my lights and close the doors painlessly, so I decided to quickly check my lights and cameras before trying to find a way to do that. Nobody was at my doors, but I nearly jumped out of my chair to see Foxy sprinting down the west hall. I shot up like lightning and closed my left door. As I sat back down I felt a little bit of pain shoot through my back as I sat back down. Foxy banged on my door and as expected, my power went down. I felt myself calming down and realised that I had found the perfect way to close the doors. I stood up and leaned to the sides using my legs instead of my back, I could close the doors and check the lights like that, but I'd have to sit back down quite slowly to keep it painless.

I opened my left door and checked the lights again before sitting back down and checking the cameras. I only saw one Bonnie in the supply closet, Freddy was still in the east hall, but before I could find Chica, the cameras went offline. Damn it! I really didn't need that, but it happened. It was 3:40 AM and I had 42% power left. 2 hours and 20 minutes. A lot could go wrong in that time. I checked my lights and cameras every minute and eventually I found Chica at my right door. I tried to close it, but it didn't work. The light turned off as well and I couldn't use either of the buttons. I kept on trying to use the buttons to no avail. How was I going to defend myself against Chica? I started trembling and felt my legs giving in, so I sat down slowly before I fell over. I clenched my teeth and tried to calm myself down enough to stand up again.

I didn't want to check the cameras because I knew that Chica would sneak in if I did. I felt a lot of heat radiating from my right door, Chica was still there. The heat was not helping me in any way and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt calm enough to stand up and try pushing the buttons again, but they were still jammed. I tested the left door and light, they both worked. I was terrified and confused at the same time, why weren't the buttons working? I kept pushing the buttons to no avail. Eventually, my arm got tired and I sat back down, feeling defeated once again. All the odds were against me and I had very little hope left in me along with a painful back.

Suddenly, I heard an electrical noise, almost like the sound of a light shorting out. I got up faster than was healthy and felt pain shooting through my back yet again, but my right door buttons were working. Chica was still staring at me through the window, so I closed the door. I felt a sense of relief so strong that it was almost joyful. I closed the door and stupidly sat down as fast as I stood up, which was only so much worse for my back, but I fought against the pain long enough to check the cameras. Foxy was behind his curtains in Pirate Cove, but after staring at it for a few seconds, the camera feed flashed images of Foxy peeking out and getting ready to sprint. For once I was hoping that it was just a hallucination, because a technical difficulty would mean the end of my life.

I found Bonnie in the west hall corner with his head violently twitching. I started hearing robotic garble and felt my muscles tightening as well as pain scattering across my back. Bonnie was bad news for my sanity, so I switched to another camera as fast as I could. Freddy was in the east hall corner, staring into the camera. I could only see one of his animatronic eyes with the crack in my screen, but I knew that it was him. I put my tablet down and decided to leave my right door closed until Freddy moved from the east hall corner. Chica was still at my door, waiting to kill me. Her beak was open, as if I was her prey. I could almost imagine saliva dripping from her beak, but I turned the light off before I stared at that demonic chicken for too long. I was extremely careful when sitting down.

My back started aching, so I tried giving myself a back massage. I only succeeded in making the pain worse. I realised that my back was aching because I was sitting upright in the same position for a prolonged period of time, but trying to move only resulted in more pain. I checked the time, it was 4:30 AM and I had 30% power left. I was conserving my power really well, but the time felt like it crawled, which left plenty of room for fear and hallucinations to sweep through my mind. I was surprised to see that I didn't have as many hallucinations as earlier in the night, since I was scared to death and it felt like an oven in my office. I guess my back pain kept me from hallucinating.

Thinking of my back pain reminded me of how bad it actually was. I decided to stretch quickly to relieve my back ache. At first it felt like I was breaking my back, but when that pain subsided, I felt my back ache go along with it. I had an hour and a half to survive with 30% power. The thought that I would actually survive filled me with hope. I decided to close my left door for the rest of the night, 30% was enough for both doors to be closed for 1 and a half hours. I was so close to freedom, I relaxed in my chair. I decided to check the cameras just to know where the animatronics were, but my camera feed was malfunctioning. It was flickering a lot more often than usual and I saw Foxy behind his curtains, then peek out and get ready to sprint. I was confused when the camera feed flickered and Foxy was behind his curtains again.

The flickering didn't really matter, because I had more than enough power to last the rest of the night with both of my doors closed. I stood up to check my lights out of habit and saw that Chica moved away. I sat back down and checked the cameras again, they were still flickering. It seemed too real to be a hallucination, since it happened to all the cameras, must have been a technical difficulty. I could barely make out Freddy's silhouette in the east hall under the cracks, but the flickering of the camera caused me to see Freddy gradually move closer to the camera. He moved closer with each flicker until his face was right up to the camera. I saw his mouth sync with the aggressive whisper that plagued me:

 ** _It's ME_**

It was unnerving but I knew that I was safe behind the power locked doors. I heard pots and pans crashing along with a loud **bang**. Chica must have been in the kitchen, but I never heard a pot crashing that loudly before. I checked the other cameras and found Bonnie backstage without his eyes, his face up close to the camera. I switched to the dining hall camera feed before I started hallucinating, but he also moved closer to the camera with each flicker of the camera feed until his face was right up against the camera. He aggressively whispered:

 ** _Good BYE_**

No.. Just, no. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a hallucination. I checked the west hall and saw Foxy sprint down there. The animatronics couldn't get me, since I was safe behind the doors. Then I remembered that Foxy takes my power down whenever he bangs on the door. I put my tablet down and sat there, extremely tense. Foxy banged on my door a lot more than usual, which was taking its toll on my power. He finally stopped after I heard another loud **bang** , but that last one took my power down to 4%. I thought I actually had a chance, but this sudden turn of events left me powerless, defenceless and hopeless. I just sat there, watching my power drain, knowing there was nothing I could do. I looked back on my life. I was just 20 years old and still had my whole life ahead of me, but now it was cut short because of some stupid pizzeria. My curiosity was going to kill me.

So much happened in such a short period of time, it was hard for me to process. I watched my power drain to non-existence. 3%, 2%, 1%. This was the end. There was no way in hell that I was going to live on 1% for over an hour. I just hopelessly watched my power go down to 0% without any emotions running through my head. I had no idea what to feel. The lights went out and before I could even blink, Freddy started playing his jingle. I completely forgot about my other problems, my back pain and the large amount of heat in my office. I just didn't care anymore. Freddy stopped playing his jingle as fast as he started. I sat in the darkness until he jumped up at me and screeched in my face, a higher pitched scream than the one that killed the phone guy.

My visions of being dragged across the floor were wrong, Freddy picked me up by my arms and carried me backstage like that. I couldn't see anything in the darkness, but I noticed that Freddy's leg bumped against something in the west hall, something metallic. The way he was carrying me was making the journey more painful, as he was holding my arms tightly and holding me up in a way that made my back hurt. I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. I didn't even try to fight it, Freddy's grip was too strong and my back was in terrible condition. I was going to die. I didn't want to die, but there was nothing that I could have done about it. Being stuck like this made me notice that there was a lot of heat radiating from Freddy. My plan to put them into overdrive to shut them down only succeeded in making the animatronics' cooling systems fail, which could be repaired. Maybe my plan would work. Maybe calling a repair man would be too expensive for the manager.

After what felt like a year of being carried through the west hall, we were finally backstage. I noticed Bonnie's silhouette at the back door. Before Freddy turned me around to be stuffed into the suit, I heard an extremely loud **bang** and barely saw Bonnie crash to the ground. Then I realised what the loud banging was. The animatronics' batteries exploded. The metallic thing that Freddy bumped into when we went out of my office was Foxy's body. My plan was working. That meant that my life was sacrificed for the greater good, nobody else would die at this place. I almost smiled as Freddy slowly forced my body down into the suit. I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth as I felt my left leg getting crushed. The pain was a lot worse than in any of my nightmares of getting crushed. I almost screamed from the pain, but I felt myself slowly losing control of my body for the last time. Before I completely blacked out, I heard one final whisper:

 _ **Thank you**_

I fulfilled my purpose. The last thing I remembered before blacking out was the sound of one last loud **bang.**

* * *

 _(A/N: And there you have it! Just so you know, there will be an epilogue coming out in just under a week, so you can look forward to that :) I hope you enjoyed the final night, since it was really interesting to write at the time. As a matter of fact, this was actually my favourite chapter of the entire story. Anyway, that's enough from me...for now)_


	13. Epilogue

**Freedom**

My eyes suddenly shot open. I found myself drifting off in an empty space. All I saw was complete darkness. I couldn't feel or hear anything and my mind was blank. I had a faint memory of my back and my left leg hurting, but I felt nothing now. Then I remembered everything. The animatronics, the whispers and, most of all, the fear. I was dead. Stuffed into a Freddy suit, the fate of many people that made the mistake to work at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza as a night guard. Something felt strange though, but I didn't know what it was. I started hearing the phone guy's recordings play over and over in my head. All my hallucinations and the whispers flooded into my head. "It's ME," "Please stay," "Thank you," I thought that they'd make more sense to me in the afterlife, but I guess I was wrong. I just closed my eyes while floating in the empty void. After all, there wasn't much to see.

I started hearing muffled voices, strange. I thought that this stuff happened before you died, not now. I guess it was kind of nice hearing people's voices while floating in this empty void. The voices started getting louder and clearer. I could barely hear the manager of the pizzeria saying "Give him this."

What?

A woman's voice responded with "I will, thank you."

It had to have been words that I heard earlier in my life. This couldn't be real. The voices disappeared, but I started hearing machinery. No, this couldn't be happening, I was dead. Something felt very wrong though. I felt as though I shouldn't have been aware that I was dead. I started a train of thought that was interrupted by my mom's voice.

"Is he alr-"

The same woman that I heard earlier responded with "Yes, but he hasn't –"

What was going on? I started wondering if I was actually dead or not. My eyes were still closed, but I couldn't open them. I realised that I completely lost the little control over myself that I had, and felt my mind going blank. The last thing I remembered was floating in the darkness for what felt like an hour.

My eyes shot open again. I was in a hospital. I was...alive? I looked around and saw that I was the only person in the room. The two beds alongside me were empty. I saw a drip in my arm along with a machine that monitored my heart rate. I tried to move, but my back was in a lot of pain and my left leg was restricted. Then I realised that Freddy only got my left leg into the suit before his battery exploded, not my whole body. I felt quite drowsy, but I didn't want to go back to sleep. I checked my little table next to my bed. There were flowers and a sealed envelope there. I took the envelope, which had Mike Schmidt written on it, and opened it.

It was my pay cheque and a notice of termination. I was fired? The reason was apparently for general unprofessionalism, odour and tampering with the animatronics. It didn't really matter to me. I looked at my pay cheque. $120.50. What crap is this? I didn't remember seeing how much I would actually get paid, but this felt like a lot less than what I deserved for my six nights of torture. My silent complaining was stopped by a splitting headache. I groaned loudly and put the cheque down. It wasn't long before a nurse walked into my room.

"Good evening Mr Schmidt, how are you feeling?"

"Awful.. Wait, did you say evening?"

I looked out the window, it was dark outside.

"Yes. You've been asleep ever since you were rushed in here at 7:30 AM. It's 8 PM now."

"How the hell?"

"I understand that this must be quite confusing for you, Mr Schmidt, but is there anything I can help you with right now?"

I explained that I had a splitting headache and that my back was sore. She told me that the drip was a pretty strong painkiller, so there wasn't much that could be done about my pain except wait. I asked her a few questions and she explained what happened. My leg was broken in four places and my back was in terrible condition. I had to stay in the hospital for a week before I could go home, and after that I'd have to walk around with a cast on my left leg for 3 months before it healed fully. The manager was the one who got me to the hospital. He gave the envelope to the nurse before he left. The last thing that she told me was that my mom came in to see me as soon as she could, which was 6 PM. The nurse told me that my mom looked really sad to see me like that. I thanked her and she walked out, leaving me on my own again.

I was so confused. Asleep for over 12 hours, such a small amount of money for my 6 nights of torture, the fact that I survived. It was quite a lot for me to take in at the time, so I just stared at the ceiling, trying to make sense of my situation. It wasn't long before I fell asleep again. I was just in darkness again, and before I knew it, I woke up to the sound of my mom's voice.

"Wake up sleepy head!"

I was so glad to see my mom's face. She looked just as happy to see me. I hugged her tightly, which really hurt my back, but I didn't care. She wanted to know what happened, but I didn't want her to know about Freddy's. I just said I couldn't remember. We spent about half an hour just talking before my dad walked in. He brought in some food and joined in on the conversation. I really enjoyed talking to my parents properly for the first time in a while. I was just so glad to see them. Unfortunately, visiting times weren't very long, so they had to leave.

I had to wait quite a while until visiting hours came again, but I killed them by sleeping after eating the food that my dad brought in. I woke up at 5:30 PM, an hour before visiting time. I was wondering how I got it right to sleep for so long, then I remembered that I was practically on constant painkillers. I started wondering what I could do for an entire half an hour, then I found myself drifting off in thought. Thinking of my nights at Freddy's, all the emotions that I experienced, the hallucinations, the whispers. A lot happened to me during that week. I was really lucky to be alive.

Before the train of thought travelled any further, the nurse walked in and asked if I needed anything. I asked for something to read and she gave me a list of magazines. I chose one on cars and she quickly got it for me. I was about halfway through reading it when the manager walked into my room.

"Hello, Mike. I uh, just wanted to come in here to apologise to you."

"Apologise for what?"

"F-for not telling you everything about the animatronics right at the start."

"Don't. After the first night, I knew what they did. It was me that decided to go back, not you."

He explained that it was more than that. He felt ashamed to be responsible for the deaths of so many people who made the mistake to work there. I wasn't the only person that was compelled to go back. It happened to everyone. The spirits inside the animatronics wanted to be free, so they messed with everybody's mind. He started getting emotional.

"I'm just...sorry for not telling you, or anyone else, to stay away from that blasted pizzeria."

Then he just thanked me for actually getting it right to shut the animatronics down. I asked why my pay was so bad and he told me that the company barely has any money. He also mentioned that my notice of termination is just for tampering with the animatronics, to keep all of this hidden. I promised him that I wouldn't tell anybody to keep him from going to prison for the rest of his life and he thanked me heavily.

"I'm so, so sorry for doing this to you Mike. I really am."

"Don't worry about it."

We just said our goodbyes and he left. He was in tears. I felt a little bad for him, but he did a really bad thing. Not telling all the other people to stay away. I realised that I still had questions that I wanted him to answer, but I'd have to save them for another day. I checked the time, it was 6:15 PM. I carried on reading that magazine while I waited for my parents to show up. I eventually saw them at 6:40 PM. They said they were late because there were mechanical problems with their car, so they could only stay for twenty minutes. I still enjoyed every second of it. I was up until 10 PM, just thinking, trying to make sense of my past week. I was very drowsy, so it wasn't hard for me to fall asleep.

I had a dream that I was at a birthday party at Freddy's.

I saw all these little kids running around, eating pizza and having a fun time. The animatronics were roaming around too, with a kid walking next to each of them. These children looked sad. They were slouching dragging their feet across the floor. I walked up to the girl that was by Chica. She immediately looked happier and just hugged me. I found this quite strange, but I hugged her back. She didn't want to let go, so I told her to come with me. I noticed that Chica stopped moving completely.

I walked with the girl to Pirate Cove. The curtains were closed, so I opened them and I found a boy who looked a little bit older than the other children sitting beside Foxy and crying. I touched his shoulder and he looked up to me with a bright smile on his face. He hugged me tightly and, just like the girl, refused to let go, so I told him to come with me as well. As we walked away, I heard Foxy crash to the ground.

We then went over the boy that was walking near Bonnie. He looked extremely pale. He turned around and when he saw my face, he looked so happy. He ran over to me and hugged me. I already knew that he wasn't going to let go, so I told him to walk with me. Bonnie stopped moving, just like Chica

I walked with the three children gripping my arms towards one last boy walking by Freddy. I looked into his eyes and he just started crying. I went to him and asked him what was wrong. He just said "I'm sorry" and held me, crying on my shirt. I looked at him and said "It's alright, I forgive you," He just wouldn't stop crying, so I just told him to walk with me. As he got up, Freddy stopped moving.

I walked outside with the four children. When we were outside the door, the children let go of my arms. They all looked at me with bright smiles and whispered:

Thank you

Then they all ran together into an open field, playing with each other, as happy as can be. After all these years, the children were finally free.

* * *

 _(A/N: And there you have it for the Nightwatch! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you want more, you can check out my next story like this on FNaF 2 called "The Nights of '87". It's still a WIP at the moment, but there's still some quality content to read. Anyway, I'll see myself out. Later)_


End file.
